- The hero of the epic novel “War in Peace” is Pierre Bezukhov.
- Bezukhov's moral quest.
- Spiritual and moral formation Pierre Bezukhov.
Human life is complex and multifaceted. At all times there were moral values, crossing which meant forever incurring shame and contempt. The dignity of a person is manifested in his desire for high goals. I would like to dedicate my essay to the hero of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace”, Pierre Bezukhov. This amazing person cannot but arouse interest. Pierre is focused on his personality, but he is not self-absorbed. He is keenly interested in life around him. For him, the question is very acute: “Why live and what am I?” This question is very important and decisive for him. Bezukhov thinks about the meaninglessness of life and death, about the fact that it is impossible to find the meaning of existence; about the relativity of all truths. It's alien to Pierre secular society, in empty and meaningless communication he cannot find his truth.
The questions that torment Pierre cannot be resolved through theoretical reasoning alone. Even reading books cannot help here. Pierre finds answers to his questions only in real life. Human suffering, contradictions, tragedies are all integral components of life itself. And Pierre is completely immersed in it. He approaches the truth, being at the epicenter of events, tragic and terrible* On spiritual formation Bezukhov is, in one way or another, influenced by the war, the fire of Moscow, French captivity, the suffering of people with whom he encounters very closely. Pierre has the opportunity to come into close contact with people's life. And this cannot leave him indifferent.
During the journey to Mozhaisk, Pierre is overcome by a special feeling: “the deeper he plunged into this sea of troops, the more he was overcome by anxiety, anxiety and a new joyful feeling that he had not yet experienced... He now experienced a pleasant feeling of consciousness that everything that what constitutes people’s happiness, the comforts of life, wealth, even life itself, is nonsense that is nice to put aside in comparison with something...”
On the Borodino field, Pierre understood “... the whole meaning and the whole significance of this war and the upcoming battle... He understood that hidden (1a(en1e), as they say in physics, warmth of patriotism that was in all those people whom he saw , and which explained to him why all these people were calmly and seemingly frivolously preparing for death.”
After Pierre was close to the soldiers, imbued with their courage, it began to seem to him the most correct and wise thing to merge with them, with simple but wise people in their understanding of life. It is no coincidence that he says: “To be a soldier, a simple soldier!... Login to this common life with their whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so.”
Throughout his life, Pierre had many hobbies and disappointments. There was a period when Pierre admired Napoleon; There was also a period of interest in Freemasonry. However, in the process of moral rebirth, Pierre abandons his former hobbies and comes to the ideas of Decembrism. His development was greatly influenced by communication with common people. From the very first minutes of meeting Pierre, we understand that we have an extraordinary, sincere, open nature. Pierre feels awkward in secular society, and society does not accept him as one of their own, despite even the rich inheritance Bezukhov received from his father. He doesn't look like a regular at social salons. Pierre is too different from them to be his own.
In the process of communicating with soldiers, mainly with Platon Karataev, Pierre Bezukhov begins to understand life better. Now his thoughts are no longer abstract and speculative. He wants to direct his energies towards real actions that could help others. For example, Bezukhov strives to help those who suffered from the war. And in the epilogue he joins the secret society of the Decembrists. This decision was obviously influenced by everything he saw in the process of communicating with ordinary people. Now Bezukhov understands well all the contradictions of life, and, to the extent possible, wants to fight them. He says: “In the courts there is theft, in the army there is only one stick: shagistika, settlements - they torture the people, they stifle education. What’s young, honestly, is ruined!”
Pierre not only understands and condemns all the contradictions and shortcomings of life. He has already achieved that moral and spiritual development, when intentions to change the existing reality are obvious and necessary: “let there be not only virtue, but independence and activity.”
The moral quest of Pierre Bezukhov makes his image especially interesting for us. It is known that Pierre’s very fate served as the basis for the concept of the novel “War and Peace.” The fact that the image of Pierre is shown in development speaks of the author’s special disposition towards him. In a novel, static images are those that do not evoke warm feelings in the writer.
Pierre cannot help but delight readers with his kindness, sincerity, and directness. There are moments when his abstract reasoning, isolation from life, seems incomprehensible. But in the process of his development, he overcomes the weaknesses of his nature and moves from the need for reflection to the need for action.
Witness what historical events was there a writer? (A.S. Pushkin, 1837; M.Yu. Lermontov, 1841; N.V. Gogol, 1852; N.G. Chernyshevsky, 1854 employee of Sovremennik; Crimean War, ; death of Nicholas I, 1855; “Peasant Reform”, 1861; assassination attempt on Alexander II; Paris Commune; the emergence of the "Land and Freedom" society, 1876; Russian-Turkish war, death of Alexander II, 1881; assassination attempt Alexandra III, 1887: Russian-Japanese War, ; Bloody Sunday, 1905 With whom from outstanding people Did Tolstoy communicate? (N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, A.I. Herzen, A.N. Ostrovsky, A.P. Chekhov, F.M. Tyutchev, T.G. Shevchenko and others)
Tolstoy's Rules and Program Whatever you are destined to do, do it, no matter what. Whatever you do, do it well. Never consult a book if you forgot something, but try to remember it yourself. Make your mind constantly act with all its possible strength. Read and think. always loud Don't be ashamed to tell people who are bothering you that they are bothering you
The moral and philosophical teaching, as it developed, was expounded by Tolstoy in works of a philosophical and journalistic nature (“Confession”, “About Life”, “So what should we do?”, “The Kingdom of God is within you”, “What is my faith?” , “What is religion and what is its essence?”, “Religion and morality”, “The law of violence and the law of love”, etc.), in pedagogical essays (“On education”, “On science”, “Conversations with children on moral issues"), in books of aphorisms ("Reading Circle", "The Path of Life", "Thoughts wise people"), etc.
Love? What is love? Love prevents death. Love is life. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists only because I love. Everything is connected by one thing. Love is God... L.N. Tolstoy Love? What is love? Love prevents death. Love is life. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists only because I love. Everything is connected by one thing. Love is God... L.N. Tolstoy
"We did the impossible because we didn't know it was impossible."
W. Isaacson
Living with integrity means living and acting in accordance with the truth. Honest man always sincere and highly moral, has no intentions backed by self-interest or the desire to harm another person. An honest life is a kind of synonym for a righteous life, and only a few have enough strength for it: it would seem that even the most sincere people still make a mistake one day.
And if you look at the actions of each person, it turns out that absolute honesty without the slightest misconduct is a real miracle that is very rare. I believe that the pursuit of honesty is a long and difficult path, and any path lies through a series of mistakes, right and wrong decisions.
Honesty is achieved through internal struggle human soul With different desires, contrary to morality. This is a process of forming a worldview that requires a lot of work. There are many writers in literature main task which was a description of the human soul and changes in it due to various events. However, it is worth highlighting the writer who paid the most attention to reflections on the dialectic of the soul of his characters, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
In his works, the great Russian writer makes literary heroes undergo a huge number of tests. In the novel "War and Peace" Prince Andrei Bolkonsky goes through a huge path of internal conflicts and changes. He goes to war with the French, but ends up in another war - with himself. An honest, selfless life does not imply a desire for material, earthly values, but is aimed at doing good and renouncing evil. Prince Bolkonsky followed his dreams of glory, and this fact prevents his actions from becoming exploits. In the battle of Austerlitz, he saw that the standard bearer was killed while sitting on a white horse, picked up the banner and rushed with it ahead of the soldiers.
However, was this heroism? Prince Andrei, first of all, wanted the “beauty of the picture”, where he looks like a hero, but all this was insincere, only for his own sake. And only one incident opened his eyes: he began to realize that he was not living by honor when he was wounded in battle, lying under open air and seeing nothing but nature. This experience, which brought him closer to death, opened his eyes to all the mistakes, all the wrong aspirations with which Andrei Bolkonsky lived. The desire for glory, the greatness of Napoleon, the beauty of his own exploits - everything seemed false to him. For this short time thinking, he goes through a huge path that leads him to true understanding an honest, heroic life. In the battle near the village of Borodino, a completely different prince Andrei Bolkonsky appears - sincere, honest, having realized from his own experience the real values of life and realizing all his mistakes. Tolstoy proves the idea that an honest life becomes such only through a huge path of one’s own mistakes and experience.
An honest person - not always thinking only about himself, and especially a person who thinks first of all about others without thinking about his own advantage - is extremely rare, so much so that it seems almost impossible or is perceived as almost savagery. In the story" Matrenin Dvor"Alexander Issaevich Solzhenitsyn main character, Matryona Vasilievna, appears before the reader as an image of a person with a truly honest life. There were a huge number of obstacles on her way, but she went through each of them and did not break spiritually, did not make mistakes. She struggled, and got confused, and faced many difficulties, experienced the injustice of fate, lost her closest people - children, in a word, she did the impossible, but for her it was not a feat. Mistakes were made by all the other people who treated her consumeristly and realized this only after death Matryona Vasilievna– because everything good over time becomes familiar, or even “mandatory”, and understanding true value comes only with her loss. Unfortunately, people often wrongfully treat those who choose to live an honest life unfairly.
Honor only at first glance seems easy, but in fact it is a difficult path, requiring a person to be ready to “break, get confused, fight, make mistakes...”
Updated: 2016-12-11
Attention!
Thank you for your attention.
If you notice an error or typo, highlight the text and click Ctrl+Enter.
By doing so, you will provide invaluable benefits to the project and other readers.
To live honestly, you have to rush, get confused, fight, make mistakes 8230 Based on Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace
Problems of morality and spirituality have always been the most important in XIX literature century. Writers and their heroes were constantly worried about the deepest and most serious questions: how to live, what is the meaning human life how to come to God, how to change in better side not only your life, but also the lives of other people. It is precisely these thoughts that overwhelm one of the main characters of the novel L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" by Pierre Bezukhov.
At the beginning of the novel, Pierre appears to us as a completely naive, inexperienced young man who lived his entire youth abroad. He does not know how to behave in secular society; in Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s salon he causes concern and fear to the hostess: “Although indeed Pierre was somewhat larger than the other men in the room, this fear could only relate to that intelligent and at the same time timid, observant and natural look , which distinguished him from everyone in this living room.” Pierre behaves naturally, he is the only one in this environment who does not wear a mask of hypocrisy, he says what he thinks.
Having become the owner of a large inheritance, Pierre, with his honesty and faith in the kindness of people, falls into the net set by Prince Kuragin. The prince's attempts to take possession of the inheritance were unsuccessful, so he decided to get the money in another way: to marry Pierre to his daughter Helen. Pierre is attracted to her external beauty, but he cannot figure out whether she is smart or kind. For a long time he does not dare to propose to her, in fact he does not propose it, Prince Kuragin decides everything for him. After marriage, there comes a turning point in the hero’s life, a period of comprehension of his entire life, its meaning. The culmination of these experiences of Pierre was a duel with Dolokhov, Helen's lover. In the good-natured and peace-loving Pierre, who learned about the arrogant and cynical attitude of Helen and Dolokhov towards him, anger began to boil, “something terrible and ugly rose in his soul.” The duel highlights everything best qualities Pierre: his courage, the courage of a man who has nothing to lose, his philanthropy, his moral strength. Having wounded Dolokhov, he waits for his shot: “Pierre, with a meek smile of regret and repentance, helplessly spreading his legs and arms, stood straight in front of Dolokhov with his broad chest and looked sadly at him.” The author compares Pierre with Dolokhov in this scene: Pierre does not want to harm him, much less kill him, and Dolokhov laments that he missed and did not hit Pierre. After the duel, Pierre was tormented by thoughts and experiences: “Such a storm of feelings, thoughts, memories suddenly arose in his soul that he not only could not sleep, but could not sit still and had to jump up from the sofa and walk quickly around the room.” He analyzes everything that happened, the relationship with his wife, the duel and realizes that he has lost everything life values, he does not know how to live further, blames only himself for making this mistake - marrying Helen, reflects on life and death: “Who is right, who is wrong? Nobody. But live and live: tomorrow you will die, just as I could have died an hour ago. And is it worth it to suffer when you only have one second to live compared to eternity? ...What's wrong? What's good? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live and what am I? What is life, what is death? What force controls everything? In this state of moral doubt, he meets the freemason Bazdeev at an inn in Torzhok, and this man’s “strict, intelligent and insightful expression of gaze” amazes Bezukhov. Bazdeev sees the reason for Pierre’s misfortune in his lack of faith in God: “Pierre, with a sinking heart, looking into the Freemason’s face with shining eyes, listened to him, did not interrupt, did not ask him, but with all his soul believed what this stranger was telling him.” Pierre himself joins the Masonic lodge and tries to live according to the laws of goodness and justice. Having received life support in the form of Freemasonry, he gains self-confidence and purpose in life. Pierre travels through his estates, trying to make life easier for his serfs. He wants to build schools and hospitals for the peasants, but the cunning manager deceives Pierre, and there are no practical results from Pierre’s trip. But he himself is full of faith in himself, and during this period of his life he manages to help his friend, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who is raising his son after the death of his wife. Prince Andrei experiences disappointment in life after Austerlitz, after the death of the little princess, and Pierre manages to stir him up, awaken interest in his surroundings: “If there is a God and there is future life, that is, truth, is virtue; and man's highest happiness consists in striving to achieve them. We must live, we must love, we must believe that we do not live now only on this piece of land, but have lived and will live forever there, in everything.”
Tolstoy shows us how a period of comprehension of one’s life can be replaced by complete disappointment and despair, which is what happens to his favorite hero. Pierre loses faith in the teachings of the Freemasons when he sees that they are all busy not with the order of the world, but with their own career, well-being, and the pursuit of power. He returns to secular society and again lives an empty, meaningless life. The only thing he has in life is love for Natasha, but an alliance between them is impossible. The war with Napoleon gives meaning to Pierre's life: he is present at the Battle of Borodino, he sees the courage and heroism of Russian soldiers, he is next to them at the Raevsky battery, brings them shells, helps in any way he can. Despite his awkward appearance for battle (he arrived in a green tailcoat and white hat), the soldiers took a liking to Pierre for his courage and even gave him the nickname “our master.” Scary picture the battle struck Pierre. When he sees that almost everyone at the battery died, he thinks: “No, now they will leave it, now they will be horrified by what they did!” After the battle, Pierre reflects on the courage of the Russian soldiers: “To be a soldier, just a soldier! To enter this common life with your whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so... The most difficult thing is to be able to unite in your soul the meaning of everything... No, not to unite. You cannot connect thoughts, but connecting all these thoughts is what you need! Yes, we need to mate, we need to mate!” To connect his life with the life of the people - this is the idea Pierre comes to. Further events in Pierre's life only confirm this idea. An attempt to kill Napoleon in burning Moscow results in saving the life of a French officer, and rescuing a girl from a burning house and helping a woman results in being taken prisoner. In Moscow, Pierre accomplishes his feat, but for him this is natural human behavior, since he is brave and noble. Probably the most important events in Pierre's life take place in captivity. Acquaintance with Platon Karataev taught Pierre the necessary life wisdom that he lacked. The ability to adapt to any conditions and not lose humanity and kindness at the same time - this was revealed to Pierre by a simple Russian man. “For Pierre, as he presented himself on the first night, an incomprehensible, round and eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth, that is how he remained forever,” writes Tolstoy about Platon Karataev. In captivity, Pierre begins to feel his unity with the world: “Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the receding, playing stars. “And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!”
When Pierre is released, when a completely different life begins, full of new problems, everything that he suffered and experienced is preserved in his soul. Everything Pierre experienced did not pass without a trace, he became a person who knows the meaning of life, its purpose. Happy family life did not make him forget about his purpose. The fact that Pierre joins a secret society, that he is a future Decembrist, is natural for Pierre. All his life he earned the right to fight for the rights of other people.
Describing the life of his hero, Tolstoy shows us a vivid illustration of the words that he once wrote in his diary: “To live honestly, you have to rush, get confused, fight, make mistakes, start and quit, and start again, and quit again, and forever struggle and lose. And calmness is spiritual meanness.”
Diaries Letters 90-volume collected worksLETTER TO A. A. TOLSTOY. 1857
Returning from abroad to Yasnaya Polyana On October 20, Tolstoy wrote to his aunt a very important letter, now known to many:
“Eternal anxiety, labor, struggle, deprivation - this is necessary conditions, from which no person should dare to think of leaving even for a second. Only honest anxiety, struggle and work based on love is what is called happiness. What happiness - stupid word; not happiness, but good; and dishonest anxiety based on self-love is misfortune. Here, in the most condensed form, is the change in outlook on life that has occurred in me recently.
It’s funny for me to remember how I thought, and how you seem to think, that you can create a happy and honest little world for yourself, in which you can live quietly, without mistakes, without repentance, without confusion, and do only good things slowly and carefully. Funny! You can’t... To live honestly, you have to struggle, get confused, struggle, make mistakes, start and quit, and start again, and quit again, and always struggle and lose. And calmness is spiritual meanness. This is why the bad side of our soul desires peace, not foreseeing that achieving it is associated with the loss of everything that is beautiful in us.”
In his last year, 1910, re-reading his correspondence with Alexandra Andreevna * prepared for publication, Tolstoy responded about this letter in his Diary as follows: “One thing is that life - work, struggle, mistakes - is such that now nothing would be said another."
PSS, vol. 58, p. 23.
* L. N. Tolstoy and A. A. Tolstaya. Correspondence (1857–1903). – M., 1911; 2nd ed. – 2011.