Essay on literature. Women's images in L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”
L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” shows the life of Russian society at the beginning of the 19th century during the War of 1812. This is a time of active social activity of a wide variety of people. Tolstoy is trying to comprehend the role of women in the life of society, in the family. To this end, he writes in his novel large number female images, which can be divided into two large groups: the first includes women - bearers of folk ideals, such as Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya and others, and the second group includes women high society, such as Helen Kuragina, Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Julie Kuragina and others.
One of the most striking female images in the novel is the image of Natasha Rostova. Being a master of depicting human souls and characters, Tolstoy embodied the best features of the human personality in the image of Natasha. He did not want to portray her as smart, calculating, adapted to life and at the same time completely soulless, as he made the other heroine of the novel, Helen Kuragina. Simplicity and spirituality make Natasha more attractive than Helen with her intelligence and good social manners. Many episodes of the novel talk about how Natasha inspires people, makes them better, kinder, helps them find love for life, and find the right solutions. For example, when Nikolai Rostov, having lost a large sum money into cards for Dolokhov, returns home irritated, not feeling the joy of life, he hears Natasha singing and suddenly realizes that “all this: misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all nonsense, but here she is real ....”
But Natasha not only helps people in difficult life situations, she also simply brings them joy and happiness, gives them the opportunity to admire themselves, and does this unconsciously and disinterestedly, as in the episode of the dance after the hunt, when she “stood up and smiled solemnly, proudly and cunningly.” - fun, the first fear that gripped Nikolai and everyone present, the fear that she would do the wrong thing, passed, and they were already admiring her.”
Just like she is close to the people, Natasha is also close to understanding the amazing beauty of nature. When describing the night in Otradnoye, the author compares the feelings of two sisters, closest friends, Sonya and Natasha. Natasha, whose soul is full of bright poetic feelings, asks Sonya to go to the window, peer into the extraordinary beauty of the starry sky, and inhale the smells that fill the quiet night. She exclaims: “After all, such a lovely night has never happened!” But Sonya cannot understand Natasha’s enthusiastic excitement. She does not have the inner fire that Tolstoy sang in Natasha. Sonya is kind, sweet, honest, friendly, she does not commit a single bad act and carries her love for Nikolai through the years. She is too good and correct, she never makes mistakes from which she could learn life experience and get an incentive for further development.
Natasha makes mistakes and draws from them the necessary life experience. She meets Prince Andrei, their feelings can be called a sudden unity of thoughts, they suddenly understood each other, felt something uniting them.
But nevertheless, Natasha suddenly falls in love with Anatoly Kuragin, even wants to run away with him. An explanation for this can be that Natasha is the most ordinary person, with their weaknesses. Her heart is characterized by simplicity, openness, and gullibility; she simply follows her feelings, not being able to subordinate them to reason. But true love woke up in Natasha much later. She realized that the one she admired, who was dear to her, lived in her heart all this time. It was a joyful and new feeling that absorbed Natasha entirely, bringing her back to life. Pierre Bezukhov played an important role in this. His “childish soul” was close to Natasha, and he was the only one who brought joy and light into the Rostov house when she felt bad, when she was tormented by remorse, suffered, and hated herself for everything that happened. She did not see reproach or indignation in Pierre's eyes. He idolized her, and she was grateful to him for being in the world. Despite the mistakes of her youth, despite the death of her loved one, Natasha’s life was amazing. She was able to experience love and hate, create a magnificent family, finding in it the much-desired peace of mind.
In some ways she is similar to Natasha, but in some ways she is opposed to Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. Main principle, to which her whole life is subordinated, is self-sacrifice. This self-sacrifice, submission to fate is combined in her with a thirst for simple human happiness. Submission to all the whims of her domineering father, a ban on discussing his actions and their motives - this is how Princess Marya understands her duty to her daughter. But she can show strength of character if necessary, which is revealed when her sense of patriotism is offended. She not only leaves the family estate, despite Mademoiselle Bourien's proposal, but also forbids her to let her companion in when she learns about her connections with the enemy command. But to save another person, she can sacrifice her pride; this is evident when she asks for forgiveness from Mademoiselle Bourrienne, forgiveness for herself and for the servant on whom her father’s wrath fell. And yet, by elevating her sacrifice to a principle, turning away from “living life,” Princess Marya suppresses something important in herself. And yet, it was sacrificial love that led her to family happiness: when she met Nikolai in Voronezh, “for the first time, all this pure, spiritual, inner work with which she had lived until now came out.” Princess Marya fully revealed herself as a person when circumstances prompted her to become independent in life, which happened after the death of her father, and most importantly, when she became a wife and mother. Her diaries dedicated to children and her ennobling influence on her husband speak about the harmony and richness of Marya Rostova’s inner world.
These two women, who are similar in many ways, are contrasted with ladies of high society, such as Helen Kuragina, Anna Pavlovna Scherer, and Julie Kuragina. These women are similar in many ways. At the beginning of the novel, the author says that Helen, “when the story made an impression, looked back at Anna Pavlovna and immediately took on the same expression that was on the maid of honor’s face.” The most characteristic sign of Anna Pavlovna is the static nature of words, gestures, even thoughts: “The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, the constant awareness of her sweet shortcoming, from which she wants, cannot, does not find it necessary to get rid of it.” Behind this characteristic lies the author's irony and hostility towards the character.
Julie is the same socialite, “the richest bride in Russia”, who received a fortune after the death of her brothers. Like Helen, who wears a mask of decency, Julie wears a mask of melancholy: “Julie seemed disappointed in everything, told everyone that she did not believe in friendship, love, or any joys of life and expected peace only “there.” Even Boris, preoccupied with searching for a rich bride, feels the artificiality and unnaturalness of her behavior.
So, women close to natural life and folk ideals, such as Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, find family happiness after going through a certain path of spiritual and moral quest. And women, far from moral ideals, cannot experience true happiness because of their selfishness and adherence to the empty ideals of secular society.
L. N. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace” is a grandiose work not only in terms of the monumentality of the historical events described in it, deeply researched by the author and artistically processed into a single logical whole, but also in terms of the variety of created images, both historical and fictional. In depicting historical characters, Tolstoy was more of a historian than a writer; he said: “Where historical figures speak and act, he did not invent and used materials.” Fictional images are described artistically and at the same time are conductors of the author’s thoughts. Female characters convey Tolstoy's ideas about the complexity of human nature, about the peculiarities of relationships between people, about family, marriage, motherhood, happiness.
From the point of view of the system of images, the heroes of the novel can be conditionally divided into “living” and “dead”, that is, developing, changing over time, deeply feeling and experiencing and - in contrast to them - frozen, not evolving, but static. There are women in both “camps”, and there are so many female images that it seems almost impossible to mention them all in the essay; perhaps it would be wiser to dwell in more detail on the main characters and characteristic secondary characters who play a significant role in the development of the plot.
The “living” heroines in the work are, first of all, Natasha Rostova and Marya Bolkonskaya. Despite the difference in upbringing, family traditions, atmosphere at home, character, in the end they become close friends. Natasha, who grew up in a warm, loving, open, sincere family atmosphere, having absorbed the carelessness, dashing, and enthusiasm of the “Rostov breed,” has been winning hearts since her youth with her all-encompassing love for people and her thirst for reciprocal love. Beauty in the generally accepted sense of the word is replaced by mobility of features, liveliness of the eyes, grace, flexibility; her wonderful voice and ability to dance captivate many. Princess Marya, on the contrary, is clumsy, the ugliness of her face is only occasionally illuminated by her “radiant eyes.” Life without going out in the village makes her wild and silent, communication with her is difficult. Only a sensitive and insightful person can notice the purity, religiosity, even self-sacrifice hidden behind external isolation (after all, in quarrels with her father, Princess Marya blames only herself, not recognizing his temper and rudeness). However, at the same time, the two heroines have much in common: a living, developing inner world, a craving for high feelings, spiritual purity, clear conscience. Fate brings them both into contact with Anatoly Kuragin, and only chance saves Natasha and Princess Marya from a connection with him. Due to their naivety, the girls do not see Kuragin’s low and selfish goals and believe in his sincerity. Due to the external difference, the relationship between the heroines is not easy at first, misunderstanding, even contempt arises, but then, having gotten to know each other better, they become irreplaceable friends, forming an indivisible moral union, united by the best spiritual qualities of Tolstoy’s favorite heroines.
In constructing a system of images, Tolstoy is far from schematism: the line between the “living” and the “dead” is permeable. Tolstoy wrote: “For an artist there cannot and should not be heroes, but there must be people.” Therefore, female images appear in the fabric of the work, which are difficult to definitely classify as “living” or “dead”. This can be considered the mother of Natasha Rostova, Countess Natalya Rostova. From the conversations of the characters, it becomes clear that in her youth she moved in society and was a member and welcome guest of salons. But, having married Rostov, she changes and devotes herself to her family. Rostova as a mother is an example of cordiality, love and tact. She - close friend and an adviser to children: in touching conversations in the evenings, Natasha devotes her mother to all her secrets, secrets, experiences, seeks her advice and help. At the same time, at the time of the main action of the novel, her inner world is static, but this can be explained by a significant evolution in her youth. She becomes a mother not only for her children, but also for Sonya. Sonya gravitates towards the camp of the “dead”: she does not have that seething cheerfulness that Natasha has, she is not dynamic, not impulsive. This is especially emphasized by the fact that at the beginning of the novel Sonya and Natasha are always together. Tolstoy gave this generally good girl an unenviable fate: falling in love with Nikolai Rostov does not bring her happiness, since for reasons of the well-being of the family, Nikolai’s mother cannot allow this marriage. Sonya feels gratitude to the Rostovs and focuses on her so much that she becomes fixated on the role of the victim. She does not accept Dolokhov’s proposal, refusing to advertise her feelings for Nikolai. She lives in hope, basically showing off and demonstrating her unrecognized love.
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L. Tolstoy created great picture, where he described the problems of war, as well as peace. Female characters in the novel “War and Peace” reveal the inner side of social vicissitudes. There is a global war - when peoples and countries are at war, there are local wars - in the family and within a person. The same is true with the world: peace is between states and emperors. People in personal relationships also come to peace; a person comes to peace, trying to decide internal conflicts and contradictions.
Prototypes of female characters in the epic novel “War and Peace”
Leo Tolstoy was inspired by the people who surrounded him in everyday life. There are other examples from the biographies of writers that indicate that authors, when creating a work, borrow features for book characters from real personalities.
For example, Marcel Proust did this - French writer. His characters are a synthesis of the traits that people around the author possessed. In the case of L. Tolstoy, female images in the epic “War and Peace” are also written out, thanks to the appeal to women from the writer’s social circle. Let's give examples: the character of Maria Bolkonskaya, the sister of Andrei Bolkonsky, L. Tolstoy created, inspired by the personality of Maria Volkonskaya (the writer's mother). Another, no less lively and vibrant female character is Countess Rostova (the eldest), based on the author’s grandmother, Pelageya Tolstoy.
However, some characters have several prototypes at the same time: Natasha Rostova, already familiar to us, for example, as literary hero, has common features with the writer’s wife, Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy, as well as Sofia’s sister, Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya. The fact that the prototypes of these characters were close relatives of the writer explains the warmth and tender attitude of the author towards the characters he created.
Leo Tolstoy showed himself to be a subtle psychologist and expert human souls. The writer understands equally well the pain of young Natasha Rostova when the girl’s doll breaks, but also the pain of a mature woman, Natalya Rostova (the eldest), who is experiencing the death of her son.
The title of the novel says that the writer constantly turns to contrasts and oppositions: war and peace, good and evil, masculine and feminine. It seems to the reader (due to stereotypes) that war is a man’s business, and home and peace, accordingly, are women’s business. But Lev Nikolaevich demonstrates that this is not so. For example, Princess Bolkonskaya shows courage and masculinity when she defends her family estate from the enemy and buries her father.
Note that the division of characters into positive and negative is also based on contrast. However, negative heroes remain endowed with negative traits throughout the novel, while positive characters undergo internal struggle. The writer calls this struggle a spiritual quest, and shows that goodies come to spiritual growth through hesitation, doubt, pangs of conscience... A difficult path awaits them.
Let us dwell in more detail on the characteristics of young Natasha and Countess Rostova, as well as on the figure of Maria Bolkonskaya. But before that, let’s briefly turn to the image of Andrei Bolkonsky’s wife.
Lisa Bolkonskaya
Lisa is a character who balanced the inherent gloom and depression of Prince Andrei. In society, Andrei was perceived as a closed and silent person. Even the prince’s appearance hinted at this: dry and elongated features, a heavy gaze. His wife had a different appearance: a lively princess, short in stature, who constantly fussed and minced with small steps. With her death, Andrei lost his balance and began new stage spiritual quest of the prince.
Helen Kuragina
Helen is Anatole’s sister, written as a depraved, selfish character. Kuragina is interested in entertainment, she is young, narcissistic and flighty. However, she is frivolous and does not show patriotic feelings, continuing to lead her usual way of life in Moscow, captured by Napoleon’s troops. Helen's fate is tragic. An additional tragedy in her life is brought by the fact that she was never able to break out of the vicious circle of low morality.
Natasha Rostova
Younger Rostov, of course, is one of the central female characters. Natasha is beautiful and sweet, at first she is characterized by naivety and frivolity. Prince Andrei, having fallen in love with her, understands that between them there is an abyss of life experience. This thought of the prince is justified when Natasha succumbs to a fleeting infatuation with Anatoly Kuragin.
The reader may be interested in observing how Natasha's image changes: at first - a small, lively, funny and romantic girl. Then - at the ball - the reader sees her as a blossoming girl. Finally, during the retreat from Moscow, Natasha shows her patriotism, empathy and compassion. Rostova's maturity awakens when she takes care of the dying Andrei Bolkonsky. In the end, Natasha becomes a wise and loving wife and mother, although she loses some of her former beauty.
Natasha is no stranger to mistakes: this is her passion for Kuragin. Spiritual improvement and deepening inner world connected with Natasha’s relationship with Prince Andrei. Calm and harmony come to the heroine when she marries Pierre Bezukhov.
Natasha is characterized by empathy and mercy. The girl feels people's pain and sincerely tries to help those who need help. During the war, Natasha realizes that material assets- nothing compared to human life. Therefore, she sacrifices her family property to save the wounded soldiers. The girl throws things off the cart and transports people in this way.
Natasha is beautiful. However, her beauty comes not from physical data (of course, also outstanding), but from her soulfulness and inner world. Rostova's moral beauty is a bud that at the end of the novel turns into a rose.
Countess Rostova (senior)
Countess Natalya, as a mother, tries to appear strict and serious. But she shows herself to be a loving mother, who only feigns anger and annoyance at the excessive sentimentality of her children.
Countess Rostova depends on the rules accepted in society. Breaking these rules is awkward and difficult for her, but Natalya does this if close relatives or friends need help. For example, when Annette, her friend, found herself in a difficult situation, the Countess, embarrassed, asked her to accept the money - this was a sign of attention and help.
The Countess raises her children in freedom and liberty, but this is only an appearance: in fact, Natalya cares about the future of her sons and daughters. She doesn't want her son to marry a homeless woman. The eldest Rostova is doing everything to break up the emerging relationship between her youngest daughter and Boris. Thus, strong feeling maternal love is one of the main qualities of Countess Rostova.
Vera Rostova
Sister of Natasha Rostova. In Lev Nikolaevich’s narrative, this image is always in the shadows. However, Vera did not inherit the smile that adorned Natasha’s face, and therefore, Lev Nikolaevich notes, the girl’s face seemed unpleasant.
Vera is described as a selfish nature: the eldest Rostova does not like her brothers and sister, they irritate her. Vera loves only herself. The girl marries Colonel Berg, who was similar to her in character.
Marya Bolkonskaya
Andrei Bolkonsky's sister is a strong character. A girl lives in a village, all her steps are controlled by an evil and cruel father. The book describes a situation when Marya, wanting to look beautiful, puts on makeup and dresses up in a masaka-colored dress. The father is dissatisfied with her outfit, expressing despotism towards his daughter.
Dear readers! We invite you to familiarize yourself with Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
Marya is an ugly, sad, but deeply thinking and intelligent girl. The princess is characterized by uncertainty and tightness: her father always says that she is not good-looking and is unlikely to get married. What attracts attention to Marya’s face are her large, radiant and deep eyes.
Marya is the opposite of Vera. Altruism, courage and patriotism, as well as responsibility and fortitude distinguish this woman from War and Peace. The female characters in the novel “War and Peace” have something in common - they are strong personalities.
Princess Bolkonskaya initially rejects Rostova (the youngest), but after the loss of her father and brother, the princess’s attitude towards Natasha changes. Marya forgives Natasha for breaking Andrei's heart by being carried away by Anatoly Kuragin.
The princess dreams of happiness, family and children. Having fallen in love with Anatole Kuragin, the girl refuses the vile young man, because she feels sorry for Madame Burien. Thus, Marya expresses nobility of character and sympathy for people.
Later, Marya meets Nikolai Rostov. This connection is beneficial for both: Nikolai, having married the princess, helps the family with money, because the Rostovs lost a fair share of their fortune during the war. Marya sees in Nikolai salvation from the burden of a lonely life.
A high society lady who embodies the falsehood and hypocrisy often found in salons.
Thus, Leo Tolstoy portrays both good and bad female characters in the epic War and Peace, making the work a separate world.
In the novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy draws many female characters. Natasha Rostova, one of the author’s favorite heroines, Marya Bolkonskaya, whom Tolstoy treats with the same warmth and sympathy, is contrasted with the beautiful, depraved and pathologically stupid princess Helen Kuragina, who embodies all the filth metropolitan society, Princess Drubetskaya is a mother hen, the young “little princess” Liza Bolkonskaya is a gentle and mournful angel. Less space is given in the novel to Vera Rostova, Sonya, a pupil of the Rostov family, and other women who play cameo role. Tolstoy's attitude towards all women is quite peculiar. Gorky noticed this when he wrote about Tolstoy: “Most of all he spoke about God, about man and woman. In my opinion, he treats a woman with irreconcilable hostility and loves to punish her - if she is not Kitty or Natasha Rostova, a woman is a limited being...” Yes, Tolstoy really loved his heroine Natasha Rostova. Her image is most fully revealed in the novel. Who is Natasha Rostova?
When Marya Bolkonskaya asked Pierre to talk about Natasha, he was at a dead end: “I absolutely don’t know what kind of girl she is. She's charming. Why, I don’t know. That's all that can be said about her." Natasha is not at all interested in intellectual life and public interests. It is impossible to even say whether she is smart, “she does not deign to be smart,” as Pierre put it in the same conversation with Princess Marya. But it has a surprising and powerful influence on moral formation and the mental life of Prince Andrei and Pierre. Doesn't exist for Natasha complex issue about the meaning of existence, which Andrei and Pierre are thinking about and trying to solve. But she solves this question, as if incidentally, by the very fact of her existence.
After meeting Natasha, Andrei's views on life change dramatically.
Natasha is always sweet and beautiful. Being close to another person, she heals and renews him, and no one can understand how she does this. Natasha, without knowing it, determines the social behavior of people - such is her role in the life of Prince Andrei and Pierre. With her behavior, Natasha separates people from everything false and contributes to their unification on some common basis. Even Drubetsky is attracted by the power emanating from Natasha. Firmly at first intending to make it clear to Natasha that the relationship that once connected them, even in childhood, could not be renewed, Boris finds a completely different Natasha than he knew before. Now he can no longer help but see her, he visits Helen less often, he leaves in a fog, not knowing how this could end, and is completely confused.
Natasha sincerely loves Andrei Bolkonsky and brings him back to life. The episode with Anatoly Kuragin is nothing more than a mistake. Her pure soul could not see the falsity of this person, because she could not allow unclean thoughts in other people.
In the epilogue we see a happy Natasha. Tolstoy paints her as a loving and beloved wife and caring mother, and he himself admires this new role of hers.
Also Tolstoy’s favorite heroine is Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. The meek and gentle Princess Marya was brought up without a mother; her father, although he madly loved his daughter, made increased demands on her. Nevertheless, she always meekly endured her father’s whims and nagging, never contradicted him and did not consider the punishments unfair. Submissiveness and religiosity, which her father teased, are combined in her with a thirst for simple human happiness. Her submission is that of a daughter who has no moral right to judge her father. But at the same time, he is a strong and courageous person with a developed sense of self-esteem. It was this feeling that helped her show the necessary firmness when Anatol Kuragin wooed her. Marya longs for happiness, but she cannot marry someone she doesn’t love.
Marya shows the same fortitude when her patriotic feelings are insulted. She even forbade her to let her French companion in, having learned that she was connected with the enemy command. The richness of her inner world is evidenced by her diary dedicated to her children and her ennobling influence on her husband. Tolstoy lovingly describes the “radiant eyes” that make her ugly face beautiful. Princess Marya is a deep and sincere person; she, like Natasha, is alien to pettiness, envy, falsehood, and hypocrisy. Her spiritual gentleness and inner nobility aroused in Nikolai Rostov sincere love. Marya's gentleness has a beneficial effect on their family life.
In the images of Natasha Rostova and Marya Bolkonskaya, Tolstoy reflects typical features the best representatives of the noble environment of the 19th century.
If Natasha and Marya are beautiful inner beauty, then Helen Kuragina is very beautiful in appearance, but there is no sublime in her beauty, she excites disgust. Helen is selfish and therefore in all her actions she is guided only by her own whims. Helen is indeed beautiful in appearance, but mentally ugly, she is undeveloped and vulgar. Helen is well aware of her beauty and knows how it affects others. Yes, they admire her, but they admire her only as a beautiful and precious thing. She uses this for personal gain. Let us remember the episode when Helen seduces Pierre. Did she love him? Hardly. She loved his money. After all, when Pierre was just the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, few people from the society of Helen and her ilk were interested in him. Only after receiving the inheritance did he become desirable in all houses. Helen set a trap for him. She, one might say, forced him to say: “I love you.” The outcome was a foregone conclusion. She married Pierre, became rich, and therefore gained power.
Helen is also tested by the War of 1812, which reveals in her a vile and insignificant creature. She dreams of a new marriage while her husband is alive, for which she even converts to Catholicism, while the whole people unites against the enemy under the banner of Orthodoxy. Helen's death is natural and inevitable. Tolstoy doesn’t even indicate the exact cause of her death; it doesn’t matter to him anymore. Helen is spiritually dead.
Vera Rostova plays a cameo role in the novel. This is Natasha's older sister, but they are so different from each other that we are even surprised at their relationship. Tolstoy paints her as a cold, unkind woman who values the opinion of the world too much and always acts in accordance with its laws. Vera is unlike the entire Rostov family.
Another woman of the Rostov family is Sonya. Tolstoy condemns and does not love this heroine, makes her lonely at the end of the novel and calls her “empty flower.” But, in my opinion, she is capable of arousing sympathy. Sonya sincerely loves Nikolai, she can be kind and selfless. It is not her fault that she breaks up with Nikolai, it is Nikolai’s parents who are to blame. It is the Rostovs who insist that the wedding of Nikolai and Sonya be postponed. Yes, Sonya does not know how, like Natasha, to admire the beauty of the starry sky, but this does not mean that she does not see this beauty. Let's remember how beautiful this girl was at Christmas time during fortune telling. She was not hypocritical or pretending, she was sincere and open. This is how Nikolai saw her. I don’t quite agree with the author’s statement that her wings for love are clipped. With her love, Sonya could do a lot, even with a person like Dolokhov. Perhaps, with her devotion and dedication, she would revive and purify this person. After all, he knows how to love his mother.
Liza Bolkonskaya is the little heroine of the novel, the wife of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. Tolstoy showed us very little of her, and her life was just as short. We know that her family life with Andrei did not go well, and her father-in-law considered her the same as all other women who have more shortcomings than advantages. Nevertheless, she is a loving and faithful wife. She sincerely loves Andrei and misses him, but humbly endures her husband’s long absence. Lisa's life is short and inconspicuous, but not empty, after her there was little Nikolenka.
Tolstoy's attitude towards his heroines is also shown in the epilogue. Natasha is happy with Pierre; they have three daughters and a son. Marya and Nikolai are happy too. Tolstoy generally considers the family of Nicholas and Princess Marya ideal, a model of family happiness. No wonder everyone is drawn to them and everyone gathers under the roof of the Lysogorsk estate: the Bezukhovs, and Denisov, and the old countess, and Sonya, who found the meaning of life in serving the house, and the long-orphaned Nikolenka Bolkonsky. Even the peasants of the surrounding villages ask the Rostovs to buy them and thus include them in their world.
War and Peace is one of those books that cannot be forgotten. Its very name contains all of human life. And “War and Peace” is a model of the structure of the world, the universe, which is why the symbol of this world appears in Part IV of the novel (Pierre Bezukhov’s dream) - a globe. “This globe was a living, oscillating ball, without dimensions.” Its entire surface consisted of drops tightly compressed together. The drops moved and moved, now merging, now separating. Each tried to spread out, to capture the largest space, but the others, shrinking, sometimes destroyed each other, sometimes merged into one. “This is life,” said the old teacher who once taught Pierre geography. “How simple and clear this is,” thought Pierre, “how I couldn’t have known this before.”
“How simple and clear it all is,” we repeat, rereading our favorite pages of the novel. And these pages, like drops on the surface of a globe, connecting with others, form part of a single whole. So, episode by episode, we move towards the infinite and eternal, which is human life. But the writer Tolstoy would not have been a philosopher Tolstoy if he had not shown us the polar sides of existence: life in which form predominates, and life that contains the fullness of content. It is from these Tolstoy ideas about life that we will consider female images, in which the author highlights their special purpose - to be a wife and mother.
For Tolstoy, the world of family is the basis human society, where a woman plays a unifying role. If a man is characterized by an intense intellectual and spiritual search, then a woman, having a more subtle intuition, lives by feelings and emotions.
The clear contrast between good and evil in the novel was naturally reflected in the system of female images. The contrast of internal and external images as a favorite technique of the writer is indicative of such heroines as Helen Kuragina, Natasha Rostova and Marya Bolkonskaya.
Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal emptiness, fossilization. Tolstoy constantly mentions her “monotonous”, “unchanging” smile and “antique beauty of her body”; she resembles a beautiful soulless statue. Helen Scherer enters the salon “noisily wearing her sick white robe, decorated with ivy and moss,” as a symbol of soullessness and coldness. It is not for nothing that the author does not mention her eyes, while Natasha’s “brilliant”, “shining” eyes and Marya’s “radiant” eyes always attract our attention.
Helen personifies immorality and depravity. The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not know any moral standards, living according to the inexorable law of fulfilling their insignificant desires. Helen marries only for her own enrichment. She constantly cheats on her husband, since the animal nature prevails in her nature. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless. “I’m not such a fool as to have children,” she says blasphemous words. Helene, in front of the whole society, is busy organizing her personal life while she was still Pierre’s wife, and her mysterious death due to the fact that she is entangled in her own intrigues.
Such is Helen Kuragina with her disdainful attitude towards the sacrament of marriage, towards the duties of a wife. It is not difficult to guess that Tolstoy embodied the worst feminine qualities in her and contrasted her with the images of Natasha and Marya.
One cannot help but say about Sonya. The peaks of Marya’s spiritual life and the “peaks of feeling” of Natasha are inaccessible to her. She is too down to earth, too immersed in everyday life. She is also given joyful moments of life, but these are only moments. Sonya cannot compare with Tolstoy’s favorite heroines, but this is rather her misfortune than her fault, the author tells us. She is a “barren flower,” but perhaps the life of a poor relative, the feeling of constant dependence did not allow her to blossom in her soul.
One of the main characters in the novel is Natasha Rostova. Tolstoy draws Natasha in development, he traces Natasha’s life in different years, and, naturally, over the years her feelings, her perception of life change.
We first meet Natasha when this little thirteen-year-old girl, “black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive,” runs into the living room and runs into her mother. And with her image the theme of “living life” enters the novel. What Tolstoy always appreciated in Natasha was the fullness of life, the desire to live interestingly, fully and, most importantly, every minute. Overflowing with optimism, she strives to keep up with everything: to console Sonya, childishly declare her love for Boris, argue about the type of ice cream, sing the romance “The Key” with Nikolai, and dance with Pierre. Tolstoy writes that “the essence of her life is love.” It combines the most valuable qualities of a person: love, poetry, life. Of course, we don’t believe her when she “in all seriousness” tells Boris: “Forever... Until my death.” “And, taking him by the arm, she, with a happy face, quietly walked next to him into the sofa.”
All of Natasha’s actions are determined by the demands of her nature, and not by rational choice, so she is not just a participant in a certain privacy for it belongs not to one family circle, but to the world of universal movement. And maybe Tolstoy had this in mind when he spoke about the historical characters in the novel: “Only one unconscious activity bears fruit, and the person who plays a role in historical event, never understands its meaning. If he tries to understand it, he is struck by its futility.” She, without trying to understand his role, thereby already defines it for herself and for others. “The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one is she, and there everything is - happiness, hope, light; the other half is everything where she is not, there is all despondency and darkness,” Prince Andrei will say four years later. But while she is sitting at the birthday table, she looks at Boris with a childish look of love. “This same look of hers sometimes turned to Pierre, and under the gaze of this funny, lively girl he wanted to laugh, not knowing why.” This is how Natasha reveals herself in unconscious movement, and we see her naturalness, that quality that will constitute an unchanging property of her life.
Natasha Rostova's first ball became the place of her meeting with Andrei Bolkonsky, which led to a collision between them life positions, which had a huge impact on both of them.
During the ball, she is not interested in either the sovereign or all the important persons to whom Peronskaya points out; she does not pay attention to court intrigues. She is waiting for joy and happiness. Tolstoy clearly distinguishes her from all those present at the ball, contrasting her secular society. Enthusiastic, transfixed with excitement, Natasha is described by L. Tolstoy with love and tenderness. His ironic remarks about the adjutant-manager asking everyone to step aside “somewhere else,” about “some lady,” about the vulgar fuss around the rich bride present us with a petty and false world, while Natasha among all of them is shown as the only natural being. Tolstoy contrasts the lively, ebullient, always unexpected Natasha with the cold Helen, a secular woman who lives according to established rules and never commits rash acts. “Natasha’s bare neck and arms were thin and ugly in comparison with Helen’s shoulders. Her shoulders were thin, her breasts were vague, her arms were thin; but Helen already had a varnish on her from all the thousands of glances sliding over her body,” and this makes it seem vulgar. This impression is strengthened when we remember that Helen is soulless and empty, that in her body, as if carved from marble, lives a stone soul, greedy, without a single movement of feeling. Here Tolstoy’s attitude towards secular society is revealed, Natasha’s exclusivity is once again emphasized.
What did the meeting with Andrey give? Bolkonsky Natasha? As a truly natural being, although she did not think about it, she strove to create a family and could find happiness only in the family. The meeting with Prince Andrei and his proposal created the conditions for achieving her ideal. As she prepared to start a family, she was happy. However, happiness was not destined to last long. Prince Andrei strove for Natasha, but did not understand her, he did not have a natural instinct, so he postponed the wedding, not understanding that Natasha must love constantly, that she must be happy every minute. He himself provoked her betrayal.
Portrait characteristics make it possible to expose the main qualities of her character. Natasha is cheerful, natural, spontaneous. The older she gets, the faster she turns from a girl into a girl, the more she wants to be admired, to be loved, to be the center of attention. Natasha loves herself and believes that everyone should love her, she says about herself: “What a charm this Natasha is.” And everyone really admires her, loves her. Natasha is like a ray of light in a boring and gray secular society.
Emphasizing Natasha’s ugliness, Tolstoy asserts: it’s not a matter of external beauty. The riches of her inner nature are important: talent, the ability to understand, to come to the rescue, sensitivity, subtle intuition. Everyone loves Natasha, everyone wishes her well, because Natasha herself does only good to everyone. Natasha lives not with her mind, but with her heart. The heart rarely deceives. And although Pierre says that Natasha “doesn’t deign to be smart,” she was always smart and understood people. When Nikolenka, having lost almost the Rostovs’ entire fortune, comes home, Natasha, without realizing it, sings only for her brother. And Nikolai, listening to her voice, forgets about everything about his loss, about the difficult conversation with his father that awaits him, he only listens to the wonderful sound of her voice and thinks: “What is this?.. What happened to her? How is she singing these days?.. Well, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother." And Nikolai is not the only one who is enchanted by her voice. After all, Natasha’s voice had extraordinary merits. “In her voice there was that virginity, pristineness, that ignorance of one’s own strengths and that still undeveloped velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.”
Natasha understands Denisov very well, who proposed to her. She desires him and understands that “he didn’t mean to say it, but he accidentally said it.” Natasha has an art that is not given to everyone. She knows how to be compassionate. When Sonya roared, Natasha, not knowing the reason for her friend’s tears, “opened her big mouth and became completely bad, roared like a child... and only because Sonya was crying.” Natasha’s sensitivity and subtle intuition “didn’t work” only once. Natasha, so smart and insightful, did not understand Anatoly Kuragin and Helen and paid dearly for the mistake.
Natasha is the embodiment of love, love is the essence of her character.
Natasha is a patriot. Without thinking, she gives all the carts to the wounded, leaving things behind, and does not imagine that she could do anything differently in this situation.
The Russian people are close to Natasha. She loves folk songs, traditions, music. From all this we can conclude that the passionate, lively, loving, patriotic Natasha is capable of feats. Tolstoy makes it clear to us that Natasha will follow the Decembrist Pierre to Siberia. Isn't this a feat?
We meet Princess Marya Bolkonskaya from the first pages of the novel. Ugly and rich. Yes, she was ugly, and even very bad-looking, but this was in the opinion of strangers, distant people who hardly knew her. All those few who loved her and were loved by her knew and caught her beautiful and radiant gaze. Princess Marya herself did not know all his charm and strength. This gaze itself illuminated everything around with the light of warm love and tenderness. Prince Andrei often caught this look on himself, Julie recalled in her letters the meek, calm look of Princess Marya, which, according to Julie, was missing from her, and Nikolai Rostov fell in love with the princess precisely for this look. But when she thought about herself, the sparkle in Marya’s eyes dimmed and went somewhere deep into her soul. Her eyes became the same: sad and, most importantly, frightened, making her ugly, sickly face even uglier.
Marya Bolkonskaya, daughter of General-in-Chief Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, lived constantly on the Bald Mountains estate. She had no friends or girlfriends. Only Julie Karagina wrote to her, thereby bringing joy and variety to the dull, monotonous life of the princess. The father himself raised his daughter: he gave her algebra and geometry lessons. But what did these lessons give her? How could she understand anything, feeling the gaze and breath of her father above her, whom she feared and loved more than anything in the world. The princess respected him and was in awe of him and of everything his hands had done. The main consolation and, perhaps, teacher was religion: in prayer she found peace, help, and a solution to all problems. All the complex laws of human activity were concentrated for Princess Marya in one simple rule- a lesson in love and self-affirmation. This is how she lives: she loves her father, brother, daughter-in-law, her companion, the Frenchwoman Mademoiselle Burien. But sometimes Princess Marya catches herself thinking about earthly love, about earthly passion. The princess is afraid of these thoughts like fire, but they arise, arise because she is a person and, be that as it may, a sinful person, like everyone else.
And so Prince Vasily comes to Bald Mountains with his son Anatoly to woo. Probably, in her secret thoughts, Princess Marya had long been waiting for just such a future husband: handsome, noble, kind.
Old Prince Bolkonsky invites his daughter to decide her own fate. And, probably, she would have made a fatal mistake by agreeing to the marriage if she had not accidentally seen Anatole hugging Mademoiselle Burien. Princess Marya refuses Anatoly Kuragin, refuses because she decides to live only for her father and her nephew.
The princess does not accept Natasha Rostova when she and her father come to meet the Bolkonskys. She treats Natasha with some internal hostility. She probably loves her brother too much, values his freedom, is afraid that some completely sensitive woman might lead him away, take him away, win his love. And the terrible word “stepmother”? This alone already inspires hostility and disgust.
Princess Marya in Moscow asks Pierre Bezukhov about Natasha Rostova. “Who is this girl and how do you find her?” She asks to tell “the whole truth.” Pierre feels "Princess Marya's ill will towards her future daughter-in-law." She really wants “Pierre to disapprove of Prince Andrei’s choice.”
Pierre doesn't know how to answer this question. “I absolutely don’t know what kind of girl this is, I just can’t analyze her. She’s charming,” says Pierre.
But this answer did not satisfy Princess Marya.
“Is she smart? - asked the princess.
Pierre thought about it.
“I think not,” he said, “but yes.” She doesn’t deign to be smart.”
“Princess Marya again shook her head disapprovingly,” notes Tolstoy.
All Tolstoy's heroes fall in love. Princess Marya Bolkonskaya falls in love with Nikolai Rostov. Having fallen in love with Rostov, the princess transforms during a meeting with him so that Mademoiselle Burien almost does not recognize her: “chest, feminine notes” appear in her voice, and grace and dignity appear in her movements. “For the first time, all that pure spiritual inner work that she had lived until now came out” and made the heroine’s face beautiful. Finding herself in a difficult situation, she accidentally meets Nikolai Rostov, and he helps her cope with the intractable peasants and leave Bald Mountains. Princess Marya loves Nikolai not at all the way Sonya loved him, who constantly needed to do something and sacrifice something. And not like Natasha, who needed her loved one to just be there, smile, rejoice and speak loving words to her. Princess Marya loves quietly, calmly, happily. And this happiness is increased by the consciousness that she finally fell in love, and fell in love with a kind, noble, honest man.
And Nikolai sees and understands all this. Fate more and more often pushes them towards each other. A meeting in Voronezh, an unexpected letter from Sonya, releasing Nikolai from all obligations and promises made by Sonya: what is this if not the dictates of fate?
In the fall of 1814, Nikolai Rostov married Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. Now she has what she dreamed of: a family, a beloved husband, children.
But Princess Marya did not change: she was still the same, only now Countess Marya Rostova. She tried to understand Nikolai in everything, she wanted, really wanted to love Sonya but could not. She loved her children very much. And she was very upset when she realized that something was missing in her feelings for her nephew. She still lived for others, trying to love them all with the highest, Divine love. Sometimes Nikolai, looking at his wife, was horrified by the thought of what would happen to him and his children if Countess Marya died. He loved her more life, and they were happy.
Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova become wonderful wives. Not everything in Pierre’s intellectual life is accessible to Natasha, but in her soul she understands his actions and strives to help her husband in everything. Princess Marya captivates Nicholas with spiritual wealth, which is not given to his simple nature. Under the influence of his wife, his unbridled temper softens, for the first time he realizes his rudeness towards men. Harmony in family life, as we see, is achieved where husband and wife seem to complement and enrich each other, forming a single whole. In the Rostov and Bezukhov families, mutual misunderstandings and inevitable conflicts are resolved through reconciliation. Love reigns here.
Marya and Natasha are wonderful mothers. However, Natasha is more concerned about the health of the children, and Marya penetrates into the child’s character and takes care of his spiritual and moral education.
Tolstoy endows the heroines with the most valuable qualities, in his opinion - the ability to subtly feel the mood of loved ones, share other people's grief, and selflessly love their family.
Very important quality Natasha and Marya - naturalness, artlessness. They are not able to play a predetermined role and do not depend on opinion strangers, do not live according to the laws of the world. At her first big ball, Natasha stands out precisely because of her sincerity in expressing her feelings. Princess Marya, at the decisive moment of her relationship with Nikolai Rostov, forgets that she wanted to remain aloof and polite, and their conversation goes beyond the scope of small talk: “the distant, impossible suddenly became close, possible and inevitable.”
With the similarity of the best moral qualities Natasha and Marya, in essence, are completely different, almost opposite natures. Natasha lives excitedly, seizes every moment, she does not have enough words to express the fullness of her feelings, the heroine enjoys dancing, hunting, and singing. She is highly endowed with love for people, openness of soul, and talent for communication.
Marya also lives by love, but there is a lot of meekness, humility, and self-sacrifice in her. She often rushes in thoughts from earthly life to other spheres. “The soul of Countess Marya,” writes Tolstoy in the epilogue, “strove for the infinite, eternal and perfect, and therefore could never be at peace.”
Leo Tolstoy saw the ideal of a woman, and most importantly, a wife, in Princess Marya. Princess Marya does not live for herself: she wants to make and does make her husband and children happy. But she herself is happy, her happiness consists in love for her neighbors, their joy and well-being, which, however, should be the happiness of every woman.
Tolstoy resolved the issue of a woman’s place in society in his own way: a woman’s place in the family. Natasha has created a good, strong family; there is no doubt that good children will grow up in her family, who will become full-fledged members of society.
In Tolstoy's work, the world appears multifaceted; there is room for the most diverse, sometimes opposing characters. The writer conveys to us his love for life, which appears in all its charm and completeness. And looking at the female characters in the novel, we are once again convinced of this.
“How simple and clear it all is,” we are once again convinced, turning our gaze to the globe, where there are no more drops destroying each other, but they have all merged together, making up one big and bright world, as at the very beginning - in the Rostov house . And in this world remain Natasha and Pierre, Nikolai and Princess Marya with the little Prince Bolkonsky, and “it is necessary to join hand in hand with as many people as possible to resist the general catastrophe.
Literature
1. Newspaper “Literature” No. 41, p. 4, 1996
2. Newspaper “Literature” No. 12, pp. 2, 7, 11, 1999
3. Newspaper “Literature” No. 1, p. 4, 2002
4. E. G. Babaev “Leo Tolstoy and Russian journalism of his era.”
5. “The best exam essays.”
6. 380 best school essays.”
Women in the novel
Many female characters in Tolstov's novel "War and Peace" have prototypes in real life author. This is, for example, Maria Bolkonskaya (Rostova), Tolstoy based her image on his mother, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya. Rostova Natalya Sr. is very similar to Lev Nikolaevich’s grandmother, Pelageya Nikolaevna Tolstoy. Natasha Rostova (Bezukhova) even has two prototypes: the writer’s wife, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya and her sister, Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya. Apparently, this is why Tolstoy creates these characters with such warmth and tenderness.
It is amazing how accurately he conveys the feelings and thoughts of people in the novel. The author subtly feels the psychology of a thirteen-year-old girl, Natasha Rostova, with her broken doll, and understands the grief of an adult woman, Countess Natalia Rostova, who lost youngest son. Tolstoy seems to show their life and thoughts in such a way that the reader seems to see the world through the eyes of the heroes of the novel.
Despite the fact that the writer talks about the war, feminine theme in the novel “War and Peace” fills the work with life and diversity of human relationships. The novel is full of contrasts, the author constantly contrasts good and evil, cynicism and generosity with each other.
Moreover, if negative characters remain constant in their pretense and inhumanity, then positive heroes make mistakes, are tormented by pangs of conscience, rejoice and suffer, growing and developing spiritually and morally.
Rostov
Natasha Rostova is one of the main figures in the novel; one feels that Tolstoy treats her with special tenderness and love. Throughout the entire work, Natasha is constantly changing. We see her first as a lively little girl, then as a funny and romantic girl, and in the end - she is already an adult mature woman, wise, beloved and loving wife Pierre Bezukhov.
She makes mistakes, sometimes she is mistaken, but at the same time, her inner instinct and nobility help her understand people and feel their state of mind.
Natasha is full of life and charm, so even with a very modest appearance, as Tolstoy describes, she attracts people with her joyful and pure inner world.
The eldest Natalya Rostova, the mother of a large family, a kind and wise woman, seems very strict at first glance. But when Natasha pokes her nose into her skirts, the mother “fakely angrily” glares at the girl and everyone understands how much she loves her children.
Knowing that her friend is in a difficult financial situation, the Countess, embarrassed, gives her money. “Annette, for God’s sake, don’t refuse me,” the countess suddenly said, blushing, which was so strange considering her middle-aged, thin and important face, taking money out from under her scarf.”
With all the external freedom that she provides to the children, Countess Rostova is ready to go to great lengths for their well-being in the future. She drives Boris away from his youngest daughter, prevents the marriage of his son Nikolai with the dowry Sonya, but at the same time it is completely clear that she does all this only out of love for her children. A mother's love– the most selfless and brightest of all feelings.
Natasha’s older sister, Vera, stands a little apart, beautiful and cold. Tolstoy writes: “a smile did not grace Vera’s face, as usually happens; on the contrary, her face became unnatural and therefore unpleasant.”
She is annoyed by her younger brothers and sister, they interfere with her, her main concern is herself. Selfish and self-absorbed, Vera is not like her relatives; she does not know how to love sincerely and unselfishly, like them.
Fortunately for her, Colonel Berg, whom she married, was very suited to her character, and they made a wonderful couple.
Marya Bolkonskaya
Locked in a village with an old and oppressive father, Marya Bolkonskaya appears before the reader as an ugly, sad girl who is afraid of her father. She is smart, but not confident in herself, especially since old prince constantly emphasizes her ugliness.
At the same time, Tolstoy says about her: “the princess’s eyes, large, deep and radiant (as if rays of warm light sometimes came out of them in sheaves), were so beautiful that very often, despite the ugliness of her entire face, these eyes became more attractive than beauty . But the princess had never seen a good expression in her eyes, the expression they took on in those moments when she was not thinking about herself. Like all people, her face took on a tense, unnatural, bad expression as soon as she looked in the mirror.” And after this description, I want to take a closer look at Marya, watch her, understand what is going on in the soul of this timid girl.
In fact, Princess Marya - strong personality with your own established outlook on life. This is clearly visible when she and her father do not want to accept Natasha, but after her brother’s death she still forgives and understands her.
Marya, like many girls, dreams of love and family happiness, she is ready to marry Anatol Kuragin and refuses marriage only for the sake of sympathy for Mademoiselle Burien. The nobility of her soul saves her from the vile and vile handsome man.
Fortunately, Marya meets Nikolai Rostov and falls in love with him. It is difficult to immediately say for whom this marriage becomes a great salvation. After all, he saves Marya from loneliness, and the Rostov family from ruin.
Although this is not so important, the main thing is that Marya and Nikolai love each other and are happy together.
Other women in the novel
In the novel “War and Peace,” female characters are depicted not only in beautiful and rainbow colors. Tolstoy also portrays very unpleasant characters. He always indirectly defines his attitude towards the characters in the story, but never speaks about it directly.
So, finding himself at the beginning of the novel in Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s living room, the reader understands how false she is with her smiles and ostentatious hospitality. Scherer “... is full of animation and impulses,” because “being an enthusiast has become her social position...”.
The flirtatious and stupid Princess Bolkonskaya does not understand Prince Andrei and is even afraid of him: “Suddenly the angry squirrel expression of the princess’s beautiful face was replaced by an attractive expression of fear that arouses compassion; She looked from under her beautiful eyes at her husband, and on her face appeared that timid and confessing expression that appears on a dog, quickly but weakly waving its lowered tail.” She does not want to change, develop, and does not see how the prince is bored with her frivolous tone, her unwillingness to think about what she says and what she does.
Helen Kuragina, a cynical, narcissistic beauty, deceitful and inhuman. Without hesitation, for the sake of entertainment, she helps her brother seduce Natasha Rostova, destroying not only Natasha’s life, but also Prince Bolkonsky’s. For all her external beauty, Helen is ugly and soulless internally.
Repentance, pangs of conscience - all this is not about her. She will always find an excuse for herself, and the more immoral she appears to us.
Conclusion
Reading the novel “War and Peace,” we plunge into the world of joys and sorrows together with the characters, are proud of their successes, and empathize with their grief. Tolstoy managed to convey all those subtle psychological nuances human relationships that make up our lives.
Concluding the essay on the topic “Female characters in the novel “War and Peace,” I would like to once again draw attention to how accurately and with what understanding of psychology they are written female portraits in the novel. With what awe, love and respect Tolstoy treats some female characters. And how mercilessly and clearly he shows the immorality and falsehood of others.
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