Marriages built by calculation. (Based on the novel by L.N.

Essay on literature. Female images in Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

Leo 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 the time of active social activity of various people. Tolstoy tries to comprehend the role of women in the life of society, in the family. To this end, he displays a large number of female images in his novel, which can be conditionally divided into two large groups: the first includes women who are carriers of folk ideals, such as Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya and others, and the second group includes women of the upper world, such as Helen Kuragina, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, Julie Kuragina and others.

One of the most striking female characters in the novel is the image of Natasha Rostova. As 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 intelligent, calculating, adapted to life and at the same time completely soulless, as he made another heroine of the novel - Helen Kuragina. Simplicity and spirituality make Natasha more attractive than Helene with her intelligence and good secular manners. Many episodes of the novel tell about how Natasha inspires people, makes them better, kinder, helps them find love for life, find the right decisions. For example, when Nikolai Rostov, having lost a large sum of money in cards to Dolokhov, returns home irritated and does not feel the joy of life, he hears Natasha's singing and suddenly realizes that “all this: misfortune, money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all nonsense, but 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 she does this unconsciously and unselfishly, as in the episode of the dance after the hunt, when she “became, smiled solemnly, proudly and cunningly - it was fun, the first fear that gripped Nicholas and all those present, the fear that she would not do the right thing, passed, and they were already admiring her. "

Natasha is also close to the people, and to the understanding of the amazing beauty of nature. When describing a 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 come to the window, peer into the extraordinary beauty of the starry sky, inhale the smells that the quiet night is full of. She exclaims: "After all, such a lovely night has never happened!" But Sonya cannot understand Natasha's enthusiastic excitement. It does not have the kind of inner fire that Tolstoy glorified in Natasha. Sonya is kind, sweet, honest, affable, she does not commit a single bad deed and carries her love for Nikolai through the years. She is too good and correct, she never makes mistakes from which she could draw life experience and get an incentive for further development.

Natasha makes mistakes and draws from them the necessary life experience. She meets Prince Andrew, their feelings can be called a sudden unity of thoughts, they understood each other suddenly, felt something uniting them.

But nevertheless, Natasha suddenly falls in love with Anatol Kuragin, even wants to run away with him. This can be explained by the fact that Natasha is the most ordinary person, with her own weaknesses. Her heart is inherent in simplicity, openness, gullibility, she simply follows her feelings, not knowing how to subordinate them to reason. But true love woke up in Natasha much later. She realized that the one whom she admired, who was dear to her, lived in her heart all this time. It was a joyful and new feeling that engulfed Natasha entirely, bringing her back to life. Pierre Bezukhov played an important role in this. His “childlike soul” was close to Natasha, and he was the only one who brought joy and light to the Rostovs' house when she felt bad, when she was tormented by remorse, suffered, and hated herself for everything that had 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 youth, despite the death of a loved one, Natasha's life was amazing. She was able to experience love and hate, create a magnificent family, finding in her the much-desired peace of mind.

In some ways she is similar to Natasha, but in some ways Princess Marya Bolkonskaya is opposed to her. The main principle to which her whole life is subordinated is self-sacrifice. This self-sacrifice, resignation 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 the offer of Mademoiselle Buryen, but also forbids her companion to come to her when she learns of her connections with the enemy command. But for the sake of saving another person, she can sacrifice her pride; this is seen when she asks for forgiveness from Mademoiselle Bourienne, forgiveness for herself and for the servant, upon whom her father's anger fell. And yet, elevating her sacrifice into a principle, turning away from “living life,” Princess Mary suppresses something important in herself. And yet, it was sacrificial love that led her to family happiness: when she met Nicholas in Voronezh, "for the first time, all this pure, spiritual, inner work that she had lived through until now, came out." Princess Marya fully showed herself as a person, when circumstances prompted her to live independence, 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 also speak of the harmony and wealth of Marya Rostova's inner world.

These two, in many ways similar, women are opposed by ladies of high society, such as Helen Kuragina, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, Julie Kuragina. These women are very similar to each other. At the beginning of the novel, the author says that Helene, “when the story made an impression, looked back at Anna Pavlovna and immediately assumed the same expression that was on the face of the lady-in-waiting”. Anna Pavlovna's most characteristic feature is the static nature of her words, gestures, even thoughts: “The restrained smile that played constantly on Anna Pavlovna's face, although it did not go to her obsolete features, expressed, like spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her sweet lack, from which she did not wants, cannot, does not find it necessary to get rid of ”. Behind this characteristic lies the author's irony and hostility to the character.

Julie is the same socialite, “the richest bride in Russia,” who received her fortune after the death of her brothers. Like Helene, 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, or in love, or in any joys of life and expects reassurance only“ there ”. Even Boris, preoccupied with the search for a rich bride, feels the artificiality, unnaturalness of her behavior.

So, women who are close to natural life, popular ideals, such as Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, find family happiness, having passed a certain path of spiritual and moral quest. And women who are far from moral ideals cannot experience real happiness because of their selfishness and adherence to the empty ideals of a secular society.

Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace is a grandiose work not only in terms of the monumental nature of the historical events described in it, deeply studied by the author and artistically reworked into a single logical whole, but also in terms of the variety of created images, both historical and fictional. In portraying 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 the conductors of the author's thoughts. Women's 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 of 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. In both "camps" there are women, and there are so many female characters that it seems almost impossible to stipulate all of them in the composition; perhaps it would be wiser to dwell in more detail on the main characters and characteristic minor 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, they eventually become close friends. Natasha, who grew up in a warm, loving, open, sincere family atmosphere, absorbed the carelessness, daring, enthusiasm of the “Rostov breed”, from her youth wins hearts with her all-embracing love for people and thirst for reciprocal love. Beauty in the generally accepted sense of the word is replaced by mobility of features, liveliness of eyes, grace, flexibility; the wonderful voice and the ability to dance fascinate many. Princess Marya, on the contrary, is clumsy, the ugliness of her face is only occasionally illuminated by “radiant eyes”. Life in the village without getting out makes her wild and silent, communication with her - difficult. Only a sensitive and perceptive person can notice the purity, religiosity, even self-sacrifice hidden behind external isolation (after all, Princess Marya blames only herself for quarrels with her father, not recognizing his hot temper and rudeness). However, at the same time, the two heroines have much in common: a living, developing inner world, craving for high feelings, spiritual purity, and a clear conscience. Fate confronts both of them with Anatoly Kuragin, and only chance saves Natasha and Princess Marya from contact 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, there is a misunderstanding, even contempt, but then, getting to know each other better, they become irreplaceable friends, making up an indivisible moral union, united by the best spiritual qualities of Tolstoy's beloved heroines.

In constructing a system of images, Tolstoy is far from schematic: the line between “living” and “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 can hardly be definitely attributed to “living” or “dead”. This can be considered the mother of Natasha Rostova, Countess Natalia Rostova. From the conversations of the characters, it becomes clear that in her youth she revolved in the world and was a member and a welcome guest of salons. But, having married Rostov, she changes and devotes herself to the family. Rostov as a mother is an example of cordiality, love and tact. She is a close friend and advisor 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 moment 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 endowed this generally good girl with an unenviable fate: falling in love with Nikolai Rostov does not bring her happiness, since, for reasons of family welfare, Nikolai's mother cannot allow this marriage. Sonya feels grateful to the Rostovs and focuses so much on her that she becomes obsessed with the role of the victim. She does not accept Dolokhov's proposals, refusing to advertise her feelings for Nikolai. She lives with hope, basically showing off and showing her unrecognized love.

Leo Tolstoy in his article "A few words about the book" War and Peace "" says that the surnames of the characters in the epic are consonant with the surnames of real people, because he "felt awkward" using the names of historical figures alongside fictitious ones. Tolstoy writes that he "would be very sorry" if readers thought that he was deliberately describing the characters of real people, because all the characters are fictional.

At the same time, the novel contains two heroes whom Tolstoy "unwittingly" gave the names of real people - Denisov and M. D. Akhrosimova. He did this because they were "characteristic faces of the time." Nevertheless, in the biographies and other characters of War and Peace, you can see similarities with the stories of real people, which probably influenced Tolstoy when he worked on the images of his characters.

Prince Andrey Bolkonsky

Nikolay Tuchkov. (wikimedia.org)

The hero's surname is consonant with the surname of the princely family of Volkonsky, from which the writer's mother came, however, Andrei is one of those characters whose image is more fictional than borrowed from specific people. As an unattainable moral ideal, Prince Andrey, of course, could not have a definite prototype. Nevertheless, in the facts of the character's biography, you can find a lot in common, for example, with Nikolai Tuchkov. He was a lieutenant general and, like Prince Andrei, was mortally wounded in the Battle of Borodino, from which he died in Yaroslavl three weeks later.

Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya - the writer's parents

The scene of the wounding of Prince Andrey at the Battle of Austerlitz is probably borrowed from the biography of Staff Captain Fyodor (Ferdinand) Tizengauzen, Kutuzov's son-in-law. With a banner in his hands, he led the Little Russian grenadier regiment into a counterattack, was wounded, captured and died three days after the battle. Also, the act of Prince Andrei is similar to that of Prince Peter Volkonsky, who, with the banner of the Fanagoria regiment, led the brigade of grenadiers forward.

It is possible that Tolstoy gave the image of Prince Andrei the features of his brother Sergei. At least this concerns the story of the failed marriage of Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova. Sergei Tolstoy was engaged to Tatyana Bers, the older sister of Sophia Tolstoy (the writer's wife). The marriage did not take place, because Sergei had already lived for several years with the gypsy Maria Shishkina, whom he eventually married, and Tatyana married the lawyer A. Kuzminsky.

Natasha Rostova

Sophia Tolstaya is the writer's wife. (wikimedia.org)

It can be assumed that Natasha has two prototypes at once - Tatyana and Sophia Bers. In the comments to War and Peace, Tolstoy says that Natasha Rostova turned out when he "smashed Tanya and Sonya."

Tatiana Bers spent most of her childhood in the writer's family and managed to make friends with the author of War and Peace, despite the fact that she was almost 20 years younger than him. Moreover, under the influence of Tolstoy, Kuzminskaya herself took up literary work. In her book "My life at home and in Yasnaya Polyana" she wrote: "Natasha - he said bluntly that I did not live with him for nothing, that he was cheating me." This can be found in the novel. The episode with Natasha's doll, which she offers to kiss Boris, is really copied from the real case when Tatyana invited her friend to kiss Mimi's doll. Later she wrote: "My big doll Mimi got into a novel!" The appearance of Natasha Tolstoy also painted from Tatyana.

For the image of an adult Rostova - his wife and mother - the writer probably turned to Sophia. Tolstoy's wife was devoted to her husband, gave birth to 13 children, she herself was engaged in their upbringing, housekeeping and indeed rewrote "War and Peace" several times.

Rostov

In the drafts of the novel, the family name is first Tolstoy, then Simple, then Plokhov. The writer used archival documents to recreate the life of a kind and depict it in the life of the Rostov family. There are overlaps in names with Tolstoy's paternal relatives, as in the case of the old Count Rostov. Under this name lies the grandfather of the writer Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy. This man, in fact, led a rather lavish lifestyle and spent colossal sums on recreational activities. Leo Tolstoy, in his memoirs, wrote of him as a generous but limited person who constantly arranged balls and receptions at the estate.

Even Tolstoy did not hide that Vasily Denisov is Denis Davydov

And yet this is not the good-natured Ilya Andreyevich Rostov from War and Peace. Count Tolstoy was a Kazan governor and a bribe-taker known throughout Russia, although the writer recalls that his grandfather did not take bribes, and his grandmother secretly took from her husband. Ilya Tolstoy was removed from his post after auditors discovered the theft of almost 15 thousand rubles from the provincial treasury. The reason for the shortage was called "lack of knowledge in the position of the governor of the province."

Nikolai Tolstoy. (wikimedia.org)

Nikolai Rostov is the father of the writer Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy. There are more than enough similarities between the prototype and the hero of War and Peace. Nikolai Tolstoy at the age of 17 voluntarily joined the Cossack regiment, served in the hussars and went through all the Napoleonic wars, including the Patriotic War of 1812. It is believed that the descriptions of military scenes with the participation of Nikolai Rostov are taken by the writer from the memoirs of his father. Nicholas inherited huge debts, he had to get a job as a teacher in the Moscow military orphanage department. To remedy the situation, he married the ugly and withdrawn princess Maria Volkonskaya, who was four years older than him. The marriage was arranged by the relatives of the bride and groom. Judging by the recollections of contemporaries, the marriage of convenience turned out to be very happy. Maria and Nikolai led a secluded life. Nikolai read a lot and collected a library on the estate, was engaged in farming and hunting. Tatyana Bers wrote to Sophia that Vera Rostova is very similar to Lisa Bers, another sister of Sophia.

The Bers sisters: Sophia, Tatiana and Elizabeth. (tolstoy-manuscript.ru)

Princess Marya

There is a version that the prototype of Princess Marya is the mother of Leo Tolstoy, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, by the way, she is also the full namesake of the book heroine. However, the writer's mother died when Tolstoy was less than two years old. Volkonskaya's portraits have not survived, and the writer studied her letters and diaries in order to create her image for himself.

Unlike the heroine, the writer's mother had no problems with the sciences, in particular with mathematics and geometry. She learned four foreign languages, and, judging by Volkonskaya's diaries, she had a rather warm relationship with her father, she was devoted to him. Maria lived for 30 years with her father in Yasnaya Polyana (Lysye Gory from the novel), but she never married, although she was a very enviable bride. She was a closed woman and rejected several suitors.

Dolokhov's prototype probably ate his own orangutan

Princess Volkonskaya even had a companion - Miss Hanssen, somewhat similar to Mademoiselle Buryen from the novel. After the death of her father, the daughter began to literally give away property. She gave part of the inheritance to the sister of her companion, who did not have a dowry. After that, her relatives intervened in the matter, arranging the marriage of Maria Nikolaevna with Nikolai Tolstoy. Maria Volkonskaya died eight years after the wedding, having managed to give birth to four children.

Old Prince Bolkonsky

Nikolay Volkonsky. (wikimedia.org)

Nikolai Sergeevich Volkonsky is an infantry general who distinguished himself in several battles and received the nickname "The Prussian King" from his colleagues. By nature, he is very similar to the old prince: proud, headstrong, but not cruel. He left the service after the accession of Paul I, retired to Yasnaya Polyana and took up raising his daughter. He spent whole days improving his economy and teaching his daughter languages ​​and sciences. An important difference from the character from the book: Prince Nicholas survived the war of 1812 perfectly, and died nine years later, a little short of seventy. In Moscow, he had a house on Vozdvizhenka, 9. Now it has been rebuilt.

Ilya Rostov's prototype - Tolstoy's grandfather, who ruined his career

Sonya

The prototype of Sonya can be called Tatyana Ergolskaya - the second cousin of Nikolai Tolstoy (the writer's father), who was brought up in his father's house. In their youth, they had an affair that never ended in marriage. Not only Nikolai's parents opposed the wedding, but also Ergolskaya herself. The last time she turned down a marriage proposal from a cousin was in 1836. The widowed Tolstoy asked Yergolskaya's hand to marry him and replace the mother with five children. Ergolskaya refused, but after the death of Nikolai Tolstoy she really took up the upbringing of his sons and daughter, devoting the rest of her life to them.

Leo Tolstoy appreciated his aunt and kept up a correspondence with her. She was the first to start collecting and storing the writer's papers. In his memoirs, he wrote that everyone loved Tatyana and “her whole life was love,” but she herself always loved one person - Leo Tolstoy's father.

Dolokhov

Fyodor Tolstoy-American. (wikimedia.org)

Dolokhov has several prototypes. Among them, for example, lieutenant general and partisan Ivan Dorokhov, the hero of several major campaigns, including the war of 1812. However, if we talk about character, Dolokhov has more similarities with the writer’s cousin Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, nicknamed “American”. He was a well-known breaker, player and lover of women in his time. Dolokhov is also compared with officer A. Figner, who commanded a partisan detachment, participated in duels and hated the French.

Tolstoy is not the only writer to include the American in his work. Fyodor Ivanovich is also considered the prototype of Zaretsky - Lensky's second from Eugene Onegin. Tolstoy got his nickname after he made a trip to America, during which he was boarded from a ship. There is a version that then he ate his own monkey, although Sergei Tolstoy wrote that this is not true.

Kuraginy

In this case, it is difficult to talk about the family, because the images of Prince Vasily, Anatole and Helen are borrowed from several people who are not related by kinship. Kuragin Sr. is undoubtedly Alexei Borisovich Kurakin, a prominent courtier during the reign of Paul I and Alexander I, who made a brilliant career at court and made a fortune.

Alexey Borisovich Kurakin. (wikimedia.org)

He had three children, just like Prince Vasily, of whom his daughter gave him the most trouble. Alexandra Alekseevna really had a scandalous reputation, especially her divorce from her husband made a lot of noise in the world. Prince Kurakin, in one of his letters, even called his daughter the main burden of his old age. Sounds like a War and Peace character, doesn't it? Although Vasily Kuragin expressed himself a little differently.

On the right is Alexandra Kurakin. (wikimedia.org)

Helen's prototypes - the wife of Bagration and the mistress of a classmate of Pushkin

Anatoly Lvovich Shostak, Tatyana Bers's second cousin, who courted her when she came to St. Petersburg, should be called the prototype of Anatoly Kuragin. After that, he came to Yasnaya Polyana and annoyed Leo Tolstoy. In the draft notes of War and Peace, Anatole's surname is Shimko.

As for Helene, her image is taken from several women at once. In addition to some similarities with Alexandra Kurakina, she has much in common with Ekaterina Skvaronskaya (Bagration's wife), who was known for her careless behavior not only in Russia, but also in Europe, where she left five years after the wedding. In her homeland she was called the "Wandering Princess", and in Austria she was known as the mistress of Clemens Metternich, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the empire. From him Ekaterina Skavronskaya gave birth - of course, out of wedlock - daughter Clementine. Perhaps it was the "Wandering Princess" who contributed to the entry of Austria into the anti-Napoleonic coalition.

Another woman from whom Tolstoy could borrow the features of Helene is Nadezhda Akinfova. She was born in 1840 and was very famous in St. Petersburg and Moscow as a woman of scandalous reputation and riotous disposition. She gained wide popularity thanks to her romance with Chancellor Alexander Gorchakov, a classmate of Pushkin. By the way, he was 40 years older than Akinfova, whose husband was the chancellor's grand-nephew. Akinfova also divorced her first husband, but already married the Duke of Leuchtenberg in Europe, where they moved together. Recall that in the novel itself, Helene never divorced Pierre.

Ekaterina Skavronskaya-Bagration. (wikimedia.org)

Vasily Denisov

Denis Davydov. (wikimedia.org)

Every schoolchild knows that the prototype of Vasily Denisov was Denis Davydov - a poet and writer, lieutenant general, partisan. Tolstoy used the works of Davydov when he studied the Napoleonic Wars.

Julie Karagina

There is an opinion that Julie Karagina is Varvara Aleksandrovna Lanskaya, the wife of the Minister of Internal Affairs. She is known exclusively for the fact that she had a long correspondence with her friend Maria Volkova. From these letters, Tolstoy studied the history of the war of 1812. Moreover, they almost completely entered War and Peace under the guise of correspondence between Princess Marya and Julia Karagina.

Pierre Bezukhov

Peter Vyazemsky. (wikimedia.org)

Pierre has no obvious prototype, since this character has similarities both with Tolstoy himself and with many historical figures who lived during the writer's time and during the Patriotic War.

However, some similarities can be seen with Peter Vyazemsky. He also wore glasses, received a huge inheritance, and took part in the Battle of Borodino. In addition, he wrote poetry and published. Tolstoy used his notes in the work on the novel.

Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova

In Akhrosimov's novel, this is the guest whom the Rostovs are waiting for on Natasha's name day. Tolstoy writes that Marya Dmitrievna is known all over Petersburg and all of Moscow, and for her directness and rudeness she is called "le terrible dragon".

The similarity of the character can be seen with Nastasya Dmitrievna Ofrosimova. This is a lady from Moscow, the niece of Prince Volkonsky. Prince Vyazemsky wrote in his memoirs that she was a strong, domineering woman who was highly respected in society. The Ofrosimovs' estate was located in Chisty Lane (Khamovniki district) in Moscow. It is believed that Ofrosimova was also the prototype of Khlestova in Griboyedov's Woe from Wit.

Supposed portrait of N. D. Ofrosimova by F. S. Rokotov. (wikimedia.org)

Liza Bolkonskaya

Tolstoy painted the appearance of Liza Bolkonskaya from Louise Ivanovna Truson - the wife of his second cousin. This is evidenced by Sophia's signature on the back of her portrait in Yasnaya Polyana.

The female theme occupies an important place in Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace. This work is a polemical response from the writer to the supporters of female emancipation. At one of the poles of artistic research there are numerous types of high society beauties, hostesses of magnificent salons in St. Petersburg and Moscow - Helen Kuragina, Julie Karagina, Anna Pavlovna Sherer; the cold and apathetic Vera Berg dreams of her own salon ... Secular society is immersed in eternal vanity. In the portrait of the beauty Helen Tolstoy sees the whiteness of the shoulders, the gloss of hair and diamonds, a very open chest and back, a frozen smile. Such details allow the artist to emphasize the inner emptiness, the insignificance of the high society lioness.

Real human feelings are replaced by cash in luxurious living rooms. The marriage of Helene, who chose Pierre, who had become rich, is a clear confirmation of this. Tolstoy shows that the behavior of the daughter of Prince Vasily is not a deviation from the norm, but the norm of life of the society to which she belongs.

Indeed, does Julie Karagina behave differently, having, thanks to her wealth, a sufficient choice of suitors; or Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, attaching her son to the guard? Even before the bed of the dying Count Bezukhov, Pierre's father, Anna Mikhailovna feels not a feeling of compassion, but fear that Boris will be left without an inheritance. Tolstoy also shows high society beauties in family life.

Family, children do not play a significant role in their life. Helene seems ridiculous when Pierre said that spouses can and should be bound by feelings of heartfelt affection and love. Countess Bezukhova thinks with disgust of the possibility of having children. She leaves her husband with surprising ease.

Helen is a concentrated manifestation of complete lack of spirituality, emptiness, vanity. Excessive emancipation leads a woman, according to Tolstoy, to a misunderstanding of her own role. In the salon of Helene and Anna Pavlovna Scherer, political disputes, judgments about Napoleon, about the position of the Russian army are heard ... A sense of false patriotism makes them speak exclusively in Russian during the invasion of the French.

High society beauties have largely lost the main features that are inherent in a real woman. On the contrary, in the images of Sonya, Princess Marya, Natasha Rostova, those traits are grouped that make up the type of woman in the true sense. At the same time, Tolstoy does not try to create ideals, but takes life as it is.

Indeed, in the work there are no consciously heroic female natures, similar to Turgenev's Marianne from the novel "Nov" or Elena Stakhova from "On the Eve". Needless to say, Tolstoy's favorite heroines are devoid of romantic elation? Women's spirituality lies not in intellectual life, not in Anna Pavlovna Sherer's, Helen Kuragina's, Julie Karagina's fascination with political and other male issues, but exclusively in the ability to love, in devotion to the family hearth. Daughter, sister, wife, mother - these are the main situations in which the character of Tolstoy's favorite heroines is revealed. This conclusion may raise doubts on a cursory reading of the novel. Indeed, the actions of Princess Marya and Natasha Rostova during the French invasion are patriotic, and Marya Bolkonskaya's unwillingness to take advantage of the patronage of the French general and the impossibility for Natasha to stay in Moscow under the French are also patriotic. However, the connection between female images and the image of war in the novel is more complex; it is not limited to the patriotism of the best Russian women.

Tolstoy shows that it took a historical movement of millions of people so that the heroes of the novel (Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov) could find their way to each other. Favorite heroines of Tolstoy live with their hearts, not with their minds. All the best, cherished memories of Sonya are associated with Nikolai Rostov: common children's games and pranks, Christmastide with fortune-telling and mummers, Nikolai's love impulse, the first kiss ... Sonya remains faithful to her beloved, rejecting Dolokhov's offer.

She loves meekly, but she cannot give up her love. And after the marriage of Nikolai, Sonya, of course, continues to love him. Marya Bolkonskaya with her evangelical humility is especially close to Tolstoy. And yet it is her image that personifies the triumph of natural human needs over asceticism.

The princess secretly dreams of marriage, of her own family, of children. Her love for Nikolai Rostov is a high, spiritual feeling.

In the epilogue of the novel, Tolstoy draws pictures of the Rostovs' family happiness, emphasizing that it was in the family that Princess Marya found the true meaning of life. constitutes the essence of the life of Natasha Rostova. Young Natasha loves everyone: the resigned Sonya, and the mother-countess, and her father, and Nikolai, and Petya, and Boris Drubetskoy. The rapprochement, and then separation from Prince Andrey, who proposed to her, makes Natasha suffer internally.

An overabundance of life and inexperience are the source of mistakes, rash actions of the heroine (the story with Anatol Kuragin). Love for Prince Andrei awakens with renewed vigor in Natasha. She leaves Moscow with a wagon train, which also includes the wounded Bolkonsky. Natasha is again seized by an unreasonable feeling of love and compassion. She is selfless to the end. The death of Prince Andrei deprives Natasha's life of meaning. The news of the death of Petya makes the heroine overcome her own grief in order to keep the old mother from mad despair.

Natasha “thought her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her.

Love woke up and life woke up. " After marriage, Natasha renounces social life, from "all her charms" and completely devotes herself to family life. Mutual understanding between spouses is based on the ability "with extraordinary clarity and speed to understand and communicate each other's thoughts in a way contrary to all the rules of logic."

This is the ideal of family happiness. This is Tolstoy's ideal of "peace." Tolstoy's thoughts about the true destiny of women, I think, are not outdated even in our days. Of course, women who have devoted themselves to political or social activities play a significant role in today's life. But still, many of our contemporaries choose what Tolstoy's favorite heroines have chosen for themselves. And is it really so little - to love and be loved?

One of the most striking female characters in the novel is the image of Natasha Rostova. As 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 intelligent, calculating, adapted to life and at the same time completely soulless, as he made another heroine of the novel - Helen Kuragina. Simplicity and spirituality make Natasha more attractive than Helene with her intelligence and good secular manners. Many episodes of the novel tell about how Natasha inspires people, makes them better, kinder, helps them find love for life, find the right decisions.

For example, when Nikolai Rostov, having lost a large sum of money in his cards to Dolokhov, returns home irritated and does not feel the joy of life, he hears Natasha's singing and suddenly realizes that “all this: misfortune, money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all nonsense, but 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 she does this unconsciously and unselfishly, as in the episode of the dance after the hunt, when she “became, smiled solemnly, proudly and cunningly - it was fun, the first fear that gripped Nicholas and all those present, the fear that she would do the wrong thing, passed, and they were already admiring her.

Natasha is also close to the people, and to the understanding of the amazing beauty of nature. When describing a 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 come to the window, peer into the extraordinary beauty of the starry sky, inhale the smells that the quiet night is full of. She exclaims: “After all, such a lovely night has never happened! But Sonya cannot understand Natasha's enthusiastic excitement. It does not have the kind of inner fire that Tolstoy glorified in Natasha.

Sonya is kind, sweet, honest, affable, she does not commit a single bad deed and carries her love for Nikolai through the years. She is too good and correct, she never makes mistakes from which she could draw life experience and get an incentive for further development. Natasha makes mistakes and draws from them the necessary life experience. She meets Prince Andrew, their feelings can be called a sudden unity of thoughts, they understood each other suddenly, felt something uniting them. But nevertheless, Natasha suddenly falls in love with Anatol Kuragin, even wants to run away with him. This can be explained by the fact that Natasha is the most ordinary person, with her own weaknesses. Her heart is inherent in simplicity, openness, gullibility, she simply follows her feelings, not knowing how to subordinate them to reason.

The female theme occupies an important place in the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" (1863-1869). The work is a polemical response from the writer to the supporters of female emancipation. At one of the poles of artistic research, there are numerous types of high society beauties, hostesses of magnificent salons in St. Petersburg and Moscow - Helen Kuragina, Julie Karagina, Anna Pavlovna Sherer. Cold and apathetic Vera Berg dreams of her own salon ...

Secular society is immersed in eternal vanity. In the portrait of the beauty Helen, Tolstoy draws attention to the “whiteness of the shoulders,” “the gloss of hair and diamonds,” “a very open chest and back,” “an unchanging smile.” These details allow the artist to highlight

The inner emptiness, the insignificance of the “high society lioness”. Real human feelings are replaced by cash in luxurious living rooms. The marriage of Helene, who chose Pierre, who had become rich, is a clear confirmation of this. Tolstoy shows that the behavior of the daughter of Prince Vasily is not a deviation from the norm, but the norm of life of the society to which she belongs. Indeed, does Julie Karagina behave differently, having, thanks to her wealth, a sufficient choice of suitors; or Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, attaching her son to the guard? Even at

The bed of the dying Count Bezukhov, Pierre's father, Anna Mikhailovna does not

A feeling of compassion, but the fear that Boris will be left without an inheritance.

Tolstoy also shows high society beauties in “family life”. Family, children do not play a significant role in their life. Helene seems ridiculous when Pierre said that spouses can and should be bound by feelings of heartfelt affection and love. Countess Bezukhova with

He thinks of the possibility of having children with disgust. With amazing ease she throws

Husband. Helen is a concentrated manifestation of deadening spirituality, emptiness,

Vanity. The insignificance of the life of the "socialite" is fully consistent with the ordinariness of her death.

Excessive emancipation, according to Tolstoy, leads a woman to misunderstand her own role. In the salons of Helene and Anna Pavlovna Scherer, political disputes, judgments about Napoleon, about the position of the Russian army are heard ... Thus, high-society beauties have lost the main features that are inherent in a real woman. On the contrary, in the images of Sonya, Princess Marya, Natasha Rostova, those features are grouped that make up the type of “woman in the full sense”.

At the same time, Tolstoy does not try to create ideals, but takes life “as it is”. Indeed, we will not find in the work of “consciously heroic” female natures, similar to Turgenev's Marianne from the novel “Nov” or Elena Stakhova “from“ On the Eve. ”The very way of creating female images of Tolstoy and Turgenev is different. Turgenev the realist was at the same time Lavretsky visits a distant monastery where Liza has disappeared. Moving from kliros to kliros, she walks past him with the gait of a nun, “... only the eyelashes of her eyes turned to him a little trembled. .. What did they think, what did both of them feel? Who will know? Who will say? There are such moments in life, such feelings ... You can only point to them and pass by. ”Needless to say, Tolstoy's favorite heroines are devoid of romantic elation? spirituality is not in intellectual life, not in Anna Pavlovna Sherer's hobby, Helen Kuragina, Julie Karagina, political and other "male issues", but solely in the ability to love, etc. family hearth. Daughter, sister, wife, mother - these are the main situations in which the character of Tolstoy's favorite heroines is revealed. This conclusion may raise doubts on a cursory reading of the novel. Indeed, we see the patriotism of Princess Marya and Natasha Rostova during the French invasion, we see the reluctance of Marya Volkonskaya to use

The patronage of a French general and the impossibility for Natasha to stay in Moscow

Under the French. However, the connection between female images and the image of war in the novel is more complex; it is not limited to the patriotism of the best Russian women. Tolstoy shows that it took a historical movement of millions of people so that the heroes of the novel - Marya Volkonskaya and Nikolai Rostov, Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov - could find their way to each other.

Favorite heroines of Tolstoy live with their hearts, not with their minds. All the best, cherished memories of Sonya are associated with Nikolai Rostov: common children's games and pranks, Christmastide with fortune-telling and mummers, Nikolai's love impulse, the first kiss ... Sonya remains loyal to her beloved, rejecting Dolokhov's offer. She loves

Resignedly, but she cannot give up her love. And after the marriage of Nikolai

Sonia, of course, continues to love him. Marya Volkonskaya with her gospel

She is especially close to Tolstoy with her humility. And yet it is her image that personifies the triumph

Natural human needs over asceticism. The princess secretly dreams of

Marriage, about your own family, about children. Her love for Nikolai Rostov is high,

Spiritual feeling. In the epilogue of the novel, Tolstoy draws pictures of the Rostovs' family happiness, emphasizing that it was in the family that Princess Marya found the true meaning of life.

Love is the essence of Natasha Rostova's life. Young Natasha loves everyone: the uncomplaining Sonya, and the mother-countess, and her father, and Nikolai Petya, and Boris Drubetsky. The rapprochement, and then separation from Prince Andrey, who proposed to her, makes Natasha suffer internally. An overabundance of life and inexperience are the source of mistakes, rash actions of the heroine, proof of this is the story with Anatol Kuragin.

Love for Prince Andrey awakens with renewed vigor in Natasha after leaving Moscow with a wagon train, in which the wounded Bolkonsky finds himself. The death of Prince Andrei deprives Natasha's life of meaning, but the news of Petya's death makes the heroine overcome her own grief in order to keep her old mother from insane despair. Natasha “thought her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her. Love woke up and life woke up. "

After marriage, Natasha refuses social life, from "all her charms" and

Completely devoted to family life. Mutual understanding of spouses is based on the ability "with extraordinary clarity and speed to understand and communicate the thoughts of each other, in a way contrary to all the rules of logic." This is the ideal of family happiness. This is Tolstoy's ideal of "peace."

It seems to me that Tolstoy's thoughts about the true purpose of women are not outdated even today. Of course, people who have dedicated themselves play a significant role in today's life.

Political, social or professional activities. But still, many of our contemporaries have chosen for themselves the favorite heroines of Tolstoy. And is it really so little - to love and be loved ?!
The famous novel by Leo Tolstoy depicts many human destinies, different

Characters, good and bad. It is precisely the opposition of good and evil, morality and recklessness that lies at the heart of Tolstoy's novel. In the center of the narration are the fates of the writer's favorite heroes - Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova and Marya Volkonskaya. All of them are united by a sense of goodness and beauty, they are looking for their way in the world, striving for happiness and love.

But, of course, women have their own special purpose, given by nature itself, she is, first of all, a mother, a wife. For Tolstoy, this is indisputable. The world of the family is the foundation of human society, and the mistress in it is a woman. The images of women in the novel are revealed and evaluated by the author with the help of his favorite technique - contrasting the internal and external image of a person.

We see the ugliness of Princess Marya, but "beautiful, radiant eyes" illuminate this face with an amazing light. Falling in love with Nikolai Rostov, the princess at the moment of meeting with him

She is transformed in such a way that Mademoiselle Buryen hardly recognizes her: "chest, feminine notes" appear in her voice, grace and dignity appear in her movements. "For the first time, all that pure spiritual work that she had lived through until now, came out" and made the heroine's face beautiful.

We do not notice any particular attractiveness in the appearance of Natasha Rostova. Eternally changeable, in motion, responding violently to everything that happens around Natasha can "dissolve her big mouth, becoming completely bad", "howl like a child", "only because Sonya is a jackal", she can grow old and change beyond recognition from grief after Andrey's death. It is this kind of vital variability in Natasha that Tolstoy likes because her appearance is a reflection

The richest world of her feelings.

Unlike Tolstoy's favorite heroines - Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya, Helen is

The embodiment of external beauty and at the same time a strange immobility, fossil.

Tolstoy constantly mentions her "monotonous", "unchanging" smile and "antique beauty of the body." She resembles a beautiful but soulless statue. It is not for nothing that the author does not mention her eyes at all, which, on the contrary, always attract our attention with positive heroines. Helen looks good, but she is the personification of immorality and depravity. For the beautiful Helene, marriage is a path to enrichment. She is constantly cheating on her husband, the animal nature prevails in her nature. Pierre, her husband, is struck by her inner rudeness. Helene is childless. "I am not such a fool to have children" -

She utters blasphemous words. Without being divorced, she solves the problem for

Whom she should marry, unable to choose one of her two fans. Mysterious

Helen's death is due to the fact that she got entangled in her own intrigues. Such is this heroine, her attitude to the sacrament of marriage, to the duties of a woman. But for Tolstoy,

This is the most important thing in evaluating the heroines of the novel.

Princess Marya and Natasha become wonderful wives. Not everything is available to Natasha in

Pierre's intellectual life, but with her soul she understands his actions, helps her husband in

Everyone. Princess Marya captivates Nicholas with spiritual wealth, which is not given to his uncomplicated nature. Under the influence of his wife, his unbridled temper softens, for the first time he realizes his rudeness towards men. Marya does not understand Nikolai's economic concerns, she is even jealous of her husband. But the harmony of family life lies in the fact that husband and wife, as it were, complement and enrich each other, constitute one whole. Temporary misunderstanding, light conflicts are resolved here by reconciliation.

Marya and Natasha are wonderful mothers, but Natasha is more concerned about the health of the children (Tolstoy shows how she deals with her youngest son), while Marya surprisingly penetrates into the character of the child, takes care of spiritual and moral education. We see that the heroines are similar in the main, the most valuable qualities for the author - they are given the ability to subtly feel the mood of loved ones, to share someone else's grief, they selflessly love their family. A very important quality of Natasha and Marya is naturalness, non-artificiality. They are not able to play a role, do not depend on

Prying eyes can violate etiquette. At her first ball Natasha

It stands out precisely for its spontaneity, sincerity in the manifestation of feelings. Princess

Marya at the decisive moment of her relationship with Nikolai Rostov forgets what she wanted

Be aloof and polite. She sits, deep in thought, then cries, and Nikolai, sympathizing with her, goes beyond the scope of small talk. As always with Tolstoy,

Finally, everything is decided by a look that expresses feelings more freely than the words: "and the distant,

The impossible suddenly became close, possible and inevitable. "

In his novel War and Peace, the writer conveys to us his love for life, which appears in all its charm and fullness. And, examining the female images of the novel, we are once again convinced of this.

Prince Vasily Kuragin is one of the significant characters in the epic novel War and Peace. His family, soulless and rude, impudent and acting ahead when there is an opportunity to get rich, is opposed to the delicate and kind-hearted Rostov family and the intellectual Bolkonsky family. Vasily Kuragin does not live by thoughts, but rather by instincts.

When he meets an influential person, he tries to get closer to him, and this happens to him automatically.

The appearance of Prince Vasily Sergeevich

We meet him for the first time in Anna Pavlovna's salon, where all the intellectual and what kind of wretched color of Petersburg is to be tested. While no one has arrived yet, he has helpful and confidential conversations with an aging, forty-year-old "enthusiast." Important and bureaucratic, carrying his head high, he arrived in a court uniform with stars (he managed to receive awards without doing anything useful for the country). Vasily Kuragin is bald, perfumed, dignified and, even in spite of his sixty years, graceful.

His movements are always free and familiar. Nothing can bring him out of balance. Vasily Kuragin has grown old, having spent his entire life in the world, and is in control of himself brilliantly. His flat face is covered with wrinkles. All this becomes known from the first chapter of the first part of the novel.

The Prince's Concern

He has three children, whom he loves a little. In the same chapter, he himself says that he does not have parental love for children, but he considers it his great task to attach them well in life.

In a conversation with Anna Pavlovna, he as if inadvertently asks who the position of the first secretary in Vienna is intended for. This is his main purpose of visiting Scherer. He needs to put in a warm place the silly son of Hippolytus. But, by the way, he agrees that Anna Pavlovna will try to marry his dissolute son Anatole with the rich and noble Maria Bolkonskaya, who lives with her father on the estate. And in general, he knows how to use people. He is always attracted to those who are above him, and the prince has a rare gift - to catch the moment when people can and should be used.

The ugly deeds of the prince

In the first part, starting from Chapter XVIII, Vasily Kuragin, having arrived in Moscow, tries to take possession of Pierre's inheritance, destroying his father's will. Julie Karagina wrote more or less in detail about this ugly story of Maria Bolkonskaya in a letter. Having received nothing and having played a "disgusting role", as Julie put it, Prince Vasily Kuragin left for Petersburg confused. But he did not stay in this state for long.

He seemed to absentmindedly made an effort to bring Pierre closer to his daughter, and successfully completed this business with a wedding. Pierre's money should serve the prince's family. This is how it should be, according to Prince Vasily. An attempt to marry the rake of Anatole to the unrequited ugly princess Marya also cannot be called a worthy act: he only cares about the rich dowry that his son can receive at the same time. But his wicked family is degenerating. Hippolytus is just a fool that no one takes seriously. Helen dies. Anatole, having undergone amputation of his leg, it is not known whether he will survive or not.

Kuragin's character

He is self-confident, empty, and in the tone of his voice behind decency and sympathy there is always a sneer shining through. He always tries to get close to people of high position. So, for example, everyone knows that he is on good terms with Kutuzov, and they turn to him for help in order to attach their sons to adjutants. But he was used to refusing everyone, so that at the right moment, and we have already talked about this, to take advantage of the favors only for himself. Such small lines, scattered in the text of the novel, describe a secular person - Vasily Kuragin. L. Tolstoy's characterization of it is very unflattering, and with its help the author describes the high society as a whole.

Vasily Kuragin appears before us as a great intriguer, accustomed to living with thoughts of career, money and profit. "War and Peace" (moreover, peace in Tolstoy's time was written through the letter i, which is unusual for us and meant not only peace as the absence of war, but also, to a greater extent, the universe, and there was no direct antithesis in this name) - a work in which the prince shown against the background of high society receptions and in his home, where there is no warmth and cordial relations. The epic novel contains monumental pictures of life and hundreds of characters, one of which is Prince Kuragin.