Two small essays- on the same topic. A little ironic and compilative, a C grade, but quite serious))). One is half a page on the Unified State Examination, the second is a page - for adults, under 15 years old - do not read under the threat of filling your head with porridge...
Option 1.
The main theme of the novel “War and Peace” is “popular thought.” L. N. Tolstoy shows not only the panorama folk life, but also the soul of the people, its depth and greatness. The writer contrasts the cold, calculating social life- the simple, natural life of peasants, truly righteous and happy.People from the people have deeply absorbed the wisdom of the Creator and the wisdom of nature. There is nothing ugly in nature, everything is beautiful in it, and everything is in its place. The heroes of the novel are tested by this folk wisdom, which Platon Karataev personifies in the work.
Tolstoy’s favorite heroine, Natasha, turns out to be truly popular. One has only to remember how she danced to her uncle’s guitar, and, “raised by a French emigrant” in “silk and velvet,” she was able to understand everything “that was in every Russian person.” In communicating with Russian soldiers, Pierre Bezukhov also finds the meaning and goals of life, realizing the falsity of his previous attitudes. He remains forever grateful to Platon Karataev, whom he met in captivity by the French, a Russian soldier who preached kindness and love of life.
Tolstoy draws images of the emperors Napoleon and Alexander, the Moscow governor Count Rastopchin. In their attitude towards the people, these people strive to rise above them, to become higher, they strive to control the popular element, therefore their actions are doomed. Kutuzov, on the contrary, feels like a participant in people's life; he does not lead the movement of the masses, but only tries not to interfere with the accomplishment of a truly historical event. This, according to Tolstoy, is the true greatness of the individual.
Tolstoy sang the winner of the war - the Russian people. A people possessing great moral strength, bringing with them simple harmony, simple kindness, simple love. Carrying with him the truth. And you need to live with him in unity in order to heal your soul and create a new happy world.
Option 2.
Popular thought in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's War and Peace
The main theme of the novel “War and Peace” is “popular thought.” The people are not a faceless crowd, but a completely reasonable unity of people, the engine of history. But these changes are not made consciously, but under the influence of some unknown but powerful “swarm force.” According to Tolstoy, an individual can also influence history, but on the condition that he merges with the general mass, without contradicting it, “naturally.”
Tolstoy presents a metaphor for the human world - the ball that Pierre sees in a dream - “a living, oscillating ball that has no size. The entire surface of the ball consisted of drops tightly compressed together. And these drops all moved, moved and then merged from several into one, then from one they were divided into many. Each drop sought to spread out, to capture the greatest space, but others, striving for the same thing, compressed it, sometimes destroyed it, sometimes merged with it.”
The composition of the novel is structured in such a way that each of the heroes is tested for compatibility with this ball, for the ability to “merge.” So, Prince Andrei turns out to be unviable, “too good.” He shudders at the thought of swimming in a dirty pond with the soldiers of his regiment, and he dies because he cannot afford to fall to the ground in front of a spinning grenade in front of the soldiers standing under fire... it’s “shameful,” But Pierre can running in horror, falling and crawling across the Borodino field, and after the battle, eating a “mush” with a spoon licked by a soldier... It is he, fat Pierre, who is able to master the spherical “wisdom” given to him by the “round” Platon Karataev, who remains unharmed - everywhere - and in a duel, and in the heat of the Borodino battle, and in a fight with armed French, and in captivity... And it is he who is viable.
The most sincere episodic characters- and the merchant Ferapontov, who burns his house so that it does not fall to the enemy, and the Moscow residents who leave the capital simply from the consideration that it is impossible to live in it under Bonaparte, and the men Karp and Vlas, who do not give the hay to the French, and that Moscow lady who left Moscow with her blackamoors and pugs back in June out of the consideration that “she is not Bonaparte’s servant,” all of them, according to Tolstoy, are active participants in the people’s, “swarm” life, and do not act like this on their own moral choice, but to do their part in the general “swarm” business, sometimes without even realizing their participation in it.
And the popular principle of “naturalness” is also interesting - the healthy runs away from the sick, happiness from unhappiness. Natasha quite “naturally” cannot wait for her beloved Prince Andrei “a whole year!”, and falls in love with Anatole; The captive Pierre absolutely “naturally” cannot help the weakened Karataev and abandons him, because, of course, Pierre “was too afraid for himself. He acted as if he had not seen his gaze.” And he sees in a dream: “This is life,” said the old teacher... “There is God in the middle, and every drop strives to expand in order to reflect Him in the greatest possible size. And it grows, merges, and shrinks on the surface, goes into the depths and floats up again... - said the teacher. “Here he is, Karataev, overflowed and disappeared.”
Tolstoy's ideal - Platon Karataev - loves everyone equally, accepts with humility all the hardships of life and even death itself. Platon Karataev brings Pierre folk wisdom, absorbed with mother's milk, located at a subconscious level of understanding. "His every word and every action was a manifestation of an activity unknown to him, which was his life. It made sense only as a particle of the whole, which he constantly felt... He could not understand the value and meaning of a single action or word.”. Kutuzov is also approaching this ideal, whose task is not to interfere with the action of the “swarm”.
All the fullness and richness of personal feelings and aspirations, no matter how sublime and ideal they may be for a person in Tolstoy’s world, leads to only one thing - to a merger with the “common” people, be it during life or after death. This is how Natasha Rostova dissolves in motherhood, in the element of the family as such.
The popular element acts as the only possible force in the war. "The club of the people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength and, without asking anyone's tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without disassembling anything, it rose, fell and nailed the French until the entire invasion was destroyed» .
Tolstoy deserved to be called the “Red Count”. The “club” he poetized soon, with the same “stupid simplicity”, “without asking anyone’s tastes and rules”, defeated the “landowners and nobles”, and “merged” all those remaining into a single “crystal ball” of workers and peasants... into a single swarm)
He really is a prophet...
Threat. I think that this Tolstoy ball-and-swarm theory is closest to Buddhism.Tolstoy believed that a work can be good only when the writer loves his main idea in it. In War and Peace, the writer, as he admitted, loved "people's thought". It lies not only and not so much in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, their life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the nation.
The crisis situation in the country, caused by the rapid advance of Napoleonic troops deep into Russia, revealed their best qualities, made it possible to take a closer look at the man who was previously perceived by the nobles only as an obligatory attribute of the landowner’s estate, whose lot was hard peasant labor. When a serious threat of enslavement loomed over Russia, the men, dressed in soldiers' greatcoats, forgetting their long-standing sorrows and grievances, together with the “gentlemen” courageously and steadfastly defended their homeland from a powerful enemy. Commanding a regiment, Andrei Bolkonsky for the first time saw patriotic heroes in the serfs, ready to die to save the fatherland. These are the main human values, in the spirit of “simplicity, goodness and truth,” according to Tolstoy, and represent “folk thought,” which constitutes the soul of the novel and its main meaning. It is she who unites the peasantry with the best part of the nobility with a single goal - the fight for the freedom of the Fatherland. The peasantry, which organized partisan detachments that fearlessly exterminated the French army in the rear, played a huge role in the final destruction of the enemy.
By the word “people” Tolstoy understood the entire patriotic population of Russia, including the peasantry, the urban poor, the nobility, and the merchant class. The author poetizes the simplicity, kindness, and morality of the people, contrasting them with the falsehood and hypocrisy of the world. Tolstoy shows the dual psychology of the peasantry using the example of two of its typical representatives: Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev.
Tikhon Shcherbaty stands out in Denisov’s detachment for his unusual daring, agility and desperate courage. This man, who at first fought alone against the “miroders” in his native village, attached to Denisov’s partisan detachment, soon became the most useful person in the detachment. Tolstoy concentrated in this hero typical features Russian folk character. The image of Platon Karataev shows a different type of Russian peasant. With his humanity, kindness, simplicity, indifference to hardships, and a sense of collectivism, this inconspicuous “round” man was able to return to Pierre Bezukhov, who was in captivity, faith in people, goodness, love, and justice. His spiritual qualities are contrasted with the arrogance, selfishness and careerism of the highest St. Petersburg society. Platon Karataev remained the most precious memory for Pierre, “the personification of everything Russian, good and round.”
In the images of Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev, Tolstoy concentrated the main qualities of the Russian people, who appear in the novel in the person of soldiers, partisans, servants, peasants, and the urban poor. Both heroes are dear to the writer’s heart: Plato as the embodiment of “everything Russian, good and round,” all those qualities (patriarchalism, kindness, humility, non-resistance, religiosity) that the writer highly valued among the Russian peasantry; Tikhon is the embodiment of a heroic people who rose up to fight, but only at a critical, exceptional time for the country (the Patriotic War of 1812). Tolstoy condemns Tikhon’s rebellious sentiments in peacetime.
Tolstoy correctly assessed the nature and goals of the Patriotic War of 1812, deeply understood the decisive role of the people defending their homeland in the war from foreign invaders, rejecting official assessments of the war of 1812 as a war of two emperors - Alexander and Napoleon. On the pages of the novel and, especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now all history has been written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one thought about what is driving force history. According to Tolstoy, this is the so-called “swarm principle”, the spirit and will of not one person, but the nation as a whole, and how strong the spirit and will of the people are, so probable are certain historical events. IN Patriotic War Tolstoy’s two wills collided: the will of the French soldiers and the will of the entire Russian people. This war was fair for the Russians, they fought for their Motherland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, Russia's victory over France was predetermined.
The main idea determined not only art form works, but also characters, assessment of his heroes. The War of 1812 became a milestone, a test for everyone goodies in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an extraordinary uplift before the Battle of Borodino, believes in victory; for Pierre Bezukhov, all of whose thoughts are aimed at helping to expel the invaders; for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them back, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them back; for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a battle with the enemy; for Denisov, Dolokhov, even Anatoly Kuragin. All these people, throwing away everything personal, become one and participate in the formation of the will to win.
Subject guerrilla warfare occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy emphasizes that the war of 1812 was truly a people's war, because the people themselves rose up to fight the invaders. The detachments of elders Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already operating, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, were also creating their own detachments. Tolstoy calls the brutal, life-and-death war “the club of the people’s war”: “The club of the people’s war rose with all its formidable and majestic force, and, without asking anyone’s tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but with expediency, without understanding nothing, it rose, fell and nailed the French until the entire invasion was destroyed.” In the actions of the partisan detachments of 1812, Tolstoy saw the highest form of unity between the people and the army, which radically changed the attitude towards war.
Tolstoy glorifies the “club of the people’s war”, glorifies the people who raised it against the enemy. “Karps and Vlass” did not sell hay to the French even for good money, but burned it, thereby undermining the enemy army. The small merchant Ferapontov, before the French entered Smolensk, asked the soldiers to take his goods for free, since if “Raceya decided,” he himself would burn everything. Residents of Moscow and Smolensk did the same, burning their houses so that they would not fall to the enemy. The Rostovs, leaving Moscow, gave up all their carts to transport the wounded, thus completing their ruin. Pierre Bezukhov invested huge amounts of money in the formation of a regiment, which he took as his own support, while he himself remained in Moscow, hoping to kill Napoleon in order to behead the enemy army.
“And good for that people,” wrote Lev Nikolaevich, “who, not like the French in 1813, saluted according to all the rules of art and turned the sword over with the hilt, gracefully and courteously handing it over to the magnanimous winner, but good for those people who, in a moment of testing, without asking how others acted according to the rules similar cases, with simplicity and ease, picks up the first club he comes across and nails it until in his soul the feeling of insult and revenge is replaced by contempt and pity.”
The true feeling of love for the Motherland is contrasted with the ostentatious, false patriotism of Rostopchin, who, instead of fulfilling the duty assigned to him - to remove everything valuable from Moscow - worried the people with the distribution of weapons and posters, since he liked the “beautiful role of the leader of popular feeling.” At an important time for Russia, this false patriot dreamed only of a “heroic effect.” When huge amount people sacrificed their lives to save their homeland, the St. Petersburg nobility wanted only one thing for themselves: benefits and pleasures. A bright type of careerist is given in the image of Boris Drubetsky, who skillfully and deftly used connections and the sincere goodwill of people, pretending to be a patriot, in order to move up the career ladder. The problem of true and false patriotism, staged by the writer, allowed him to broadly and comprehensively paint a picture of military everyday life and express his attitude towards the war.
The aggressive, aggressive war was hateful and disgusting to Tolstoy, but, from the point of view of the people, it was fair and liberating. The writer's views are revealed both in realistic paintings, saturated with blood, death and suffering, and in the contrasting comparison of the eternal harmony of nature with the madness of people killing each other. Tolstoy often puts his own thoughts about the war into the mouths of his favorite heroes. Andrei Bolkonsky hates her because he understands that her main goal is murder, which is accompanied by treason, theft, robbery, and drunkenness.
Introduction
“The subject of history is the life of peoples and humanity,” this is how L.N. Tolstoy begins the second part of the epilogue of the epic novel “War and Peace.” He further asks the question: “What force moves nations?” Reflecting on these “theories,” Tolstoy comes to the conclusion that: “The life of peoples does not fit into the lives of a few people, because the connection between these several people and nations has not been found...” In other words, Tolstoy says that the role of the people in history is undeniable, and the eternal truth that history is made by the people was proven by him in his novel. “People's thought” in Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” is indeed one of the main themes of the epic novel.
The people in the novel "War and Peace"
Many readers understand the word “people” not quite the way Tolstoy understands it. Lev Nikolaevich means by “people” not only soldiers, peasants, men, not only that “huge mass” driven by some force. For Tolstoy, the “people” included officers, generals, and the nobility. This is Kutuzov, and Bolkonsky, and the Rostovs, and Bezukhov - this is all of humanity, embraced by one thought, one deed, one purpose. All the main characters of Tolstoy's novel are directly connected with their people and are inseparable from them.
Heroes of the novel and “folk thought”
The fates of the beloved heroes of Tolstoy’s novel are connected with the life of the people. “People's thought” in “War and Peace” runs like a red thread through the life of Pierre Bezukhov. While in captivity, Pierre learned his truth of life. It was opened to Bezukhov by Platon Karataev, peasant man: “In captivity, in a booth, Pierre learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in the satisfaction of natural human needs, that all unhappiness comes not from lack, but from excess.” . The French offered Pierre to transfer from a soldier's booth to an officer's, but he refused, remaining faithful to those with whom he suffered his fate. And for a long time afterwards he recalled with ecstasy this month of captivity, as “a complete peace of mind, about the perfect inner freedom that he experienced only at this time.”
Andrei Bolkonsky also felt his people at the Battle of Austerlitz. Grabbing the flagpole and rushing forward, he did not think that the soldiers would follow him. And they, seeing Bolkonsky with a banner and hearing: “Guys, go ahead!” rushed at the enemy behind their leader. The unity of officers and ordinary soldiers confirms that the people are not divided into ranks and titles, the people are united, and Andrei Bolkonsky understood this.
Natasha Rostova, leaving Moscow, dumps her family property on the ground and gives away her carts for the wounded. This decision comes to her immediately, without thinking, which suggests that the heroine does not separate herself from the people. Another episode that speaks of the true Russian spirit of Rostova, in which L. Tolstoy himself admires his beloved heroine: “Where, how, when did she suck into herself from the Russian air that she breathed - this countess, raised by a French governess - this spirit, where she got these techniques from... But these spirits and techniques were the same, inimitable, unstudied, Russian.”
And Captain Tushin, who sacrificed own life for the sake of victory, for the sake of Russia. Captain Timokhin, who rushed at the Frenchman with “one skewer.” Denisov, Nikolai Rostov, Petya Rostov and many other Russian people who stood with the people and knew true patriotism.
Tolstoy created collective image people - a united, invincible people, when not only soldiers, troops, but also militias fight. Civilians they help not with weapons, but with their own methods: men burn hay so as not to take it to Moscow, people leave the city only because they do not want to obey Napoleon. This is what “folk thought” is and how it is revealed in the novel. Tolstoy makes it clear that single thought– not to surrender to the enemy – the Russian people are strong. A sense of patriotism is important for all Russian people.
Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty
The novel also shows the partisan movement. A prominent representative here was Tikhon Shcherbaty, who fought the French with all his disobedience, dexterity, and cunning. His active work brings success to the Russians. Denisov is proud of his partisan detachment thanks to Tikhon.
Opposite to the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty is the image of Platon Karataev. Kind, wise, with his worldly philosophy, he calms Pierre and helps him survive captivity. Plato's speech is filled with Russian proverbs, which emphasizes his nationality.
Kutuzov and the people
The only commander-in-chief of the army who never separated himself and the people was Kutuzov. “He knew not with his mind or science, but with his whole Russian being, he knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt...” The disunity of the Russian army in the alliance with Austria, the deception of the Austrian army, when the allies abandoned the Russians in battles, were unbearable pain for Kutuzov. To Napoleon’s letter about peace, Kutuzov replied: “I would be damned if they looked at me as the first instigator of any deal: such is the will of our people” (italics by L.N. Tolstoy). Kutuzov did not write on his own behalf, he expressed the opinion of the entire people, all Russian people.
The image of Kutuzov is contrasted with the image of Napoleon, who was very far from his people. He was only interested in personal interest in the struggle for power. An empire of worldwide submission to Bonaparte - and an abyss in the interests of the people. As a result, the war of 1812 was lost, the French fled, and Napoleon was the first to leave Moscow. He abandoned his army, abandoned his people.
Conclusions
In his novel War and Peace, Tolstoy shows that people's power is invincible. And in every Russian person there is “simplicity, goodness and truth.” True patriotism does not measure everyone by rank, does not build a career, does not seek fame. At the beginning of the third volume, Tolstoy writes: “There are two sides of life in every person: personal life, which is the more free the more abstract its interests are, and spontaneous, swarm life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed to him.” Laws of honor, conscience, general culture, general history.
This essay on the topic “People's Thought” in the novel “War and Peace” reveals only a small part of what the author wanted to tell us. The people live in the novel in every chapter, in every line.
Work test
The novel by L.N. Tolstoy was created in the 1860s. This time became in Russia a period of the highest activity of the peasant masses and the rise of the social movement.
The central theme of the literature of the 60s of the 19th century was the theme of the people. To consider it, as well as to highlight many major problems of our time, the writer turned to the historical past: the events of 1805-1807 and the War of 1812.
Researchers of Tolstoy’s work disagree on what he meant by the word “people”: peasants, the nation as a whole, merchants, philistines, and patriotic patriarchal nobility. Of course, all these layers are included in Tolstoy’s understanding of the word “people,” but only when they are bearers of morality. Everything that is immoral is excluded by Tolstoy from the concept of “people”.
With his work, the writer affirmed the decisive role of the masses in history. In his opinion, the role outstanding personality in the development of society is insignificant. No matter how brilliant a person is, he cannot at will direct the movement of history, dictate his will to it, or control the actions of a huge mass of people living a spontaneous, swarm life. History is made by people, the masses, the people, and not by a person who has risen above the people and taken upon himself the right to predict the direction of events at his own request.
Tolstoy divides life into upward and downward, centrifugal and centripetal. Kutuzov, to whom the natural course of world events within its national-historical boundaries is open, is the embodiment of the centripetal, ascending forces of history. The writer emphasizes the moral height of Kutuzov, since this hero is associated with the masses ordinary people joint goals and actions, love for the homeland. He receives his strength from the people, he experiences the same feelings as the people.
The writer also focuses on the merits of Kutuzov as a commander, whose activities were invariably directed towards one goal that was of national significance: “It is difficult to imagine a goal more worthy and more consistent with the will of the entire people.” Tolstoy emphasizes the purposefulness of all Kutuzov’s actions, the concentration of all forces on the task that confronted the entire Russian people in the course of history. An exponent of popular patriotic feeling, Kutuzov also becomes the guiding force of popular resistance, raising the spirit of the troops he commands.
Tolstoy portrays Kutuzov as folk hero who achieved independence and freedom only in alliance with the people and the nation as a whole. In the novel, the personality of the great commander is contrasted with the personality of the great conqueror Napoleon. The writer exposes the ideal of unlimited freedom, which leads to the cult of a strong and proud personality.
So, the author sees the significance of a great personality in the feeling of history taking place as the will of providence. Great people like Kutuzov, who have a moral sense, their experience, intelligence and consciousness, guess the requirements of historical necessity.
“People's thought” is also expressed in the images of many representatives of the noble class. The path of ideological and moral growth leads positive heroes to rapprochement with the people. Heroes are tested by the Patriotic War. Independence privacy from the political game of the elite emphasizes indissoluble bond heroes with the life of the people. The viability of each character is tested by “popular thought.”
She helps Pierre Bezukhov discover and demonstrate his best qualities; The soldiers call Andrei Bolkonsky “our prince”; Natasha Rostova takes out carts for the wounded; Marya Bolkonskaya rejects Mademoiselle Burien's offer to remain in Napoleon's power.
Closeness to the people is most clearly manifested in the image of Natasha, in whom Russian was originally inherent national character. In the scene after the hunt, Natasha listens with pleasure to the playing and singing of her uncle, who “sang as the people sing,” and then she dances “The Lady.” And everyone around her is amazed at her ability to understand everything that was in every Russian person: “Where, how, when did this countess, raised by a French emigrant, suck into herself this spirit from this Russian air that she breathed?”
If Natasha is completely characterized by Russian character traits, then in Prince Andrei Russian beginning interrupted by the Napoleonic idea; however, it is precisely the peculiarities of the Russian character that help him understand all the deceit and hypocrisy of Napoleon, his idol.
Pierre gets into peasant world, and the life of the villagers gives him serious thoughts.
The hero realizes his equality with the people, even recognizes the superiority of these people. The more he understands the essence and strength of the people, the more he admires them. The strength of the people lies in its simplicity and naturalness.
According to Tolstoy, patriotism is a property of the soul of any Russian person, and in this respect the difference between Andrei Bolkonsky and any soldier of his regiment is insignificant. War forces everyone to act and do things that are impossible not to do. People do not act according to orders, but obeying an inner feeling, a sense of the significance of the moment. Tolstoy writes that they united in their aspirations and actions when they sensed the danger looming over the entire society.
The novel shows the greatness and simplicity of the life of a swarm, when everyone does their part of the common cause, and a person is driven not by instinct, but by laws public life, as Tolstoy understands them. And such a swarm, or world, consists not of an impersonal mass, but of individual individuals who do not lose their individuality in merging with the swarm. This includes the merchant Ferapontov, who burns his house so that it does not fall to the enemy, and Moscow residents who leave the capital simply for the consideration that it is impossible to live in it under Bonaparte, even if there is no danger. Participants swarm life there are the peasants Karp and Vlas, who do not give the hay to the French, and that Moscow lady who left Moscow with her araps and pugs back in June out of the consideration that “she is not Bonaparte’s servant.” All these people are active participants in the people’s, swarm’s life.
Thus, the people for Tolstoy are a complex phenomenon. The writer did not consider the common people an easily controlled mass, since he understood them much more deeply. In a work where “folk thought” is in the foreground, a variety of manifestations of folk character are depicted.
Close to the people is Captain Tushin, whose image combines “small and great,” “modest and heroic.”
The theme of the people's war sounds in the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. This hero is certainly useful in guerrilla warfare; cruel and merciless towards enemies, this character is natural, but Tolstoy has little sympathy. The image of this character is ambiguous, just as the image of Platon Karataev is ambiguous.
When meeting and getting to know Platon Karataev, Pierre is struck by the warmth, good nature, comfort, and calmness emanating from this man. It is perceived almost symbolically, as something round, warm and smelling of bread. Karataev is characterized by amazing adaptability to circumstances, the ability to “get used to” in any circumstances.
The behavior of Platon Karataev unconsciously expresses the true wisdom of the folk, peasant philosophy of life, over the comprehension of which the main characters of the epic are tormented. This hero presents his reasoning in parable form. This, for example, is the legend about an innocently convicted merchant suffering “for his own and for other people’s sins,” the meaning of which is that one must humble himself and love life, even when one suffers.
And yet, unlike Tikhon Shcherbaty, Karataev is hardly capable of decisive action; his good looks lead to passivity. He is contrasted in the novel with Bogucharov’s men, who rebelled and spoke out for their interests.
Along with true nationality, Tolstoy also shows pseudo-nationality, a counterfeit of it. This is reflected in the images of Rostopchin and Speransky - specific historical figures who, although they are trying to assume the right to speak on behalf of the people, have nothing in common with them.
In the work itself artistic storytelling at times it is interrupted by historical and philosophical digressions, similar in style to journalism. Pathos philosophical digressions Tolstoy is directed against liberal-bourgeois military historians and writers. According to the writer, “the world denies war.” Thus, the device of antithesis is used to describe the dam that Russian soldiers see during the retreat after Austerlitz - ruined and ugly. In times of peace, it was surrounded by greenery, neat and well-built.
Thus, in Tolstoy’s work the question of man’s moral responsibility to history is especially acute.
So, in Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” people come closest to spiritual unity, since it is the people, according to the writer, who are the bearers of spiritual values. The heroes who embody “popular thought” are in a constant search for truth, and therefore, in development. In spiritual unity the writer sees the path to overcoming the contradictions of contemporary life. The War of 1812 was a real historical event where the idea spiritual unity came true.
The novel "War and Peace" was conceived as a novel about a Decembrist returning after an amnesty in 1856. But the more Tolstoy worked with archival materials, the more he realized that without telling about the uprising itself, and, more deeply, about the War of 1812, it was impossible to write this novel. Thus, the concept of the novel gradually transformed, and Tolstoy created a grandiose epic. At the center of the novel is L.N. Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” contains an image of the Patriotic War of 1812, which stirred up the entire Russian people, showed the whole world its power and strength, and brought forward ordinary Russian heroes and the great commander - Kutuzov. At the same time, great historical upheavals revealed the true nature of everyone individual, showed his attitude towards the Fatherland. Tolstoy depicts war like a realist writer: in hard work, blood, suffering, death. Also L.N. Tolstoy sought to reveal in his work national significance war, which united the entire society, all Russian people in a common impulse, to show that the fate of the campaign was decided not in headquarters and headquarters, but in the hearts ordinary people: Platon Karataev and Tikhon Shcherbaty, Petya Rostov and Denisov... Can you list them all? In other words, the battle painter paints a large-scale image of the Russian people who raised the “club” of the liberation war against the invaders. Later, speaking about the novel, Tolstoy wrote that main idea novel - \"folk thought\". It lies not only in the depiction of the people themselves, their way of life, their life, but in the fact that every positive hero of the novel ultimately connects his fate with the fate of the people. Here it makes sense to recall the historical concept of the writer. On the pages of the novel and especially in the second part of the epilogue, Tolstoy says that until now all history has been written as the history of individuals, as a rule, tyrants, monarchs, and no one has yet thought about what is the driving force of history. According to Tolstoy, this is the so-called “swarm principle”, the spirit and will of not one person, but the people as a whole. And how strong is the spirit and will of the people, so probable are certain historical events. So Tolstoy explains the victory in the Patriotic War by the fact that two wills collided: the will of the French soldiers and the will of the entire Russian people. This war was fair for the Russians, they fought for their Motherland, so their spirit and will to win turned out to be stronger than the French spirit and will. Therefore, Russia’s victory over France was predetermined. The War of 1812 became a milestone, a test for all the good characters in the novel: for Prince Andrei, who feels an extraordinary uplift before the Battle of Borodino, faith in victory for Pierre Bezukhov, all of whose thoughts are aimed at helping the exile invaders, he even develops a plan to kill Napoleon, for Natasha, who gave the carts to the wounded, because it was impossible not to give them back, it was shameful and disgusting not to give them, for Petya Rostov, who takes part in the hostilities of a partisan detachment and dies in a battle with the enemy, for Denisova and Dolokhova. All these people, throwing away everything personal, become one and participate in the formation of the will to win. This will to win is especially clearly manifested in crowd scenes: in the scene of the surrender of Smolensk, let us remember the merchant Ferapontov, who, succumbing to some unknown, inner strength, orders all his goods to be distributed to the soldiers, and what cannot be taken out - to be set on fire, in the scene of preparation for the Battle of Borodino, the soldiers put on white shirts, as if preparing for the last battle, in the scene of the battle of the partisans with the French. In general, the theme of guerrilla warfare occupies a special place in the novel. Tolstoy
emphasizes that the war of 1812 was a people's war, because the people themselves rose up to fight the invaders.
The detachments of elders Vasilisa Kozhina and Denis Davydov were already operating, and the heroes of the novel, Vasily Denisov and Dolokhov, were also creating their own detachments. Subject people's war finds its vivid expression in the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty. The image of this hero is ambiguous; in Denisov’s detachment he performs the most “dirty” and dangerous work. He is merciless towards his enemies, but it was largely thanks to such people that Russia won the war with Napoleon. The image of Platon Karataev, who, under conditions of captivity, again turned to his roots, is also ambiguous. Watching him, Pierre Bezukhov understands that the living life of the world is above all speculation and that happiness lies in himself. However, unlike Tikhon Shcherbaty, Karataev is hardly capable of decisive action; his good looks lead to passivity.
Showing the heroism of the Russian people, Tolstoy in many chapters of the novel talks about the plight of peasants oppressed by serfdom. The leading people of their time, Prince Bolkonsky and Count Bezukhov, are trying to ease the lot of the peasants. In conclusion, we can say that L.N. Tolstoy in his work tries
to prove to the reader the idea that the people have played and will play a decisive role in the life of the state. And that it was the Russian people who were able to defeat Napoleon’s army, which was considered invincible
The main idea of the 19th century was search and explanation national consciousness. Naturally, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy could not help but become interested in this problem. So, “folk thought” in Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”.
There are two forms of consciousness in the novel: intellectual and this very, popular consciousness. A representative of the first consciousness was, for example, Andrei Bolkonsky. He always asked the question “Why?”, he was eager to remake this world to one degree or another. The representative of the people's consciousness was Platon Karataev (he even spoke in sayings), and then Pierre Bezukhov (he did not disdain to eat from the same cauldron with the soldiers, but Bolkonsky could not bathe with everyone, he had a dislike for the people, he was by itself). Plato is met by Pierre in captivity of the French. Before this meeting, Pierre was in a mental crisis.
What place does Plato occupy in the system of images? He has no distinctive features, as he is a representative of the swarm structure. Karataev is an exclusively collective image. His description is replete with circular features. The circle is a symbol of completeness and perfection, also circle is a simple figure. This simplicity really lives in Plato. He accepts life as it is, for him all issues are initially resolved. Tolstoy himself believed that swarm consciousness is better than intellectual consciousness. Platon Karataev is not afraid of death, because it is natural for him... a common phenomenon of nature. The dog feels this free love, and therefore is attracted to Plato.
It’s interesting to look at Pierre Bezukhov’s dream while in captivity. He dreams of a ball consisting of drops, and a drop is visible, which either rises outward or sinks back into the depths. A person also rises to understand something, but return or separation is inevitable. In this situation, only family and simplicity return, this is the key to attraction (this attraction is also visible in Pierre Bezukhov, a Andrei Bolkonsky didn’t have it). If you break away, you'll die.
Let's think about how intellectual consciousness and popular consciousness relate to each other. Tolstoy usually does not explore heroes and problems, he simply explains them. But not all questions found their answer in Tolstoy. The author still could not fully explain the idea of the people. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky took literature into the section of ethnophilosophy, but no one followed them further.
The popular thought is:
1) national character,
2) the soul of the people.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy embodies the idea of a nation in the image of Platon Karataev. This idea reveals that the people's consciousness is not opposed to the ideas of war and peace, this idea is simply outside the other. This is not a confrontation. Even when Plato died, no one turned around, because nothing will happen due to the death of one person (according to the swarm consciousness). There should be no unnecessary suffering and worries. That is why it is impossible to simplify the scheme of the novel to a banal triangle (Napoleon-Kutuzov-Platon Karataev).
It is no coincidence that Tolstoy changed the title “All’s well that ends well.” He realized that nothing ends. These heroes are just a link in history... they are part of this popular consciousness.
