War and peace pierre bezukhov in captivity. Topic "The path of spiritual searches of Pierre Bezukhov

Municipal autonomous educational institution

"Average comprehensive school № 000

with in-depth study of individual subjects "

Sovetsky district of Kazan

Literature lesson summary

Analysis of the episode "Pierre in Captivity"

(vol. 4, part 1, g.XI- XIInovel "War and Peace")

Prepared

Kazan

GOALS:

1. Formation of ideas about philosophical views(quietism) through the disclosure of the images of Platon Karataev and Pierre Bezukhov.

2. Development of the ability to evaluate and interpret an episode of an epic work.

I. introduction teachers.

- The path of Pierre's searches in the continuation of the novel is the path of trial, error, doubt and disappointment.

- Why was Pierre taken prisoner?

- Captivity was for Pierre the penultimate stage of his quest. In one of his letters, Tolstoy argued that "the idea of ​​the boundaries of freedom and dependence" was central to the novel. The pictures of the shooting of the "arsonists" are also devoted to proving this idea.

II... Episode analysis.

- Who are the participants in this scene and how does Tolstoy portray them? (The participants in this scene are the French, the arsonists and the crowd. The "large crowd of people" consisted of Russians, Germans, Italians, Frenchmen and stood in a semicircle. French troops were deployed "on two fronts", the arsonists were placed "in a known order").

- Why did the French try to end the execution as soon as possible? ("… all hurrying, - and they were in a hurry not like in a hurry to make things understandable for everyone, but in the same way as in a hurry to complete what is needed, but unpleasant and incomprehensible business»).

- How did those sentenced to death behave, how did they feel? (“The sharp ones, going up to the post, stopped and ... silently looked around them, as they looked knocked out beast for a suitable hunter. " “The factory could not go. They were dragging him under the arms, and he was shouting something. When they brought him to the post, he suddenly fell silent ... wounded animal, looked around him ... ". Let's pay attention to the nature of repeated comparisons).

- The brotherly bond between people has been severed: some people have turned into "killed beasts", while others? (The "hunters").

- How do these "hunters" feel? (“There was smoke, and the French with pale faces and trembling hands were doing something near the pit.” “One old mustachioed Frenchman had his lower jaw shaking ...”).

- Why? What did everyone, without exception, both those who executed and those who were being executed, understand? (“Everyone obviously, undoubtedly knew that they were criminals who had to rather hide the traces of their crime ").

- What question torments Pierre? (« Who does it finally? They all suffer the same way as I do. Who is it? Who is it? ").

· It means that it was not them, but someone else, or, more precisely, something else created this whole nightmare. Man is a splinter drawn by the flow of history.

- How did this thought affect Pierre? ("From the minute Pierre saw this terrible murder committed by people who did not want to do it, it was as if the spring that held everything in his soul was pulled out ... and everything fell into a heap of senseless rubbish").

· But at this moment it is absolutely necessary in the development of Pierre. To accept new faith, it was necessary to lose faith in old beliefs, to give up faith in human freedom. The whole scene of the execution, even more terrible than the scene of the Battle of Borodino (remember the description of the burial of the factory), was intended to show both Pierre and the readers how a person is powerless to change the inevitable fatal order established by someone other than him.

· And here it is ...

- With whom does Pierre meet in captivity? (With a soldier, a former peasant Platon Karataev).

· We are approaching the ideological center of the novel. In Platon Karataev - the ultimate expression of Tolstoy's thoughts about the boundaries of freedom and dependence... We must carefully read everything that has been said about Platon Karataev.

- What is Pierre's first impression of Platon Karataev? ("Pierre felt something pleasant, soothing and round ...").

- What influenced Pierre so much, what interested in this man? ("Round" movements, smell, Plato's busyness, completeness, coherence of movements).

- What is the manner of speech of Karataev? (His language is folk).

Let's analyze together one of Platon Karataev's remarks ("- Eh, falcon, do not grieve, - he said with that tender, melodious affection with which old Russian women speak. - Do not grieve, friend: endure an hour, but live a century!"). What features of speech did you pay attention to? (Common speech; saturation with proverbs and sayings; manner of communication).

Work on options:

Option I: vernacular, elements of folklore ("Bude", "important potatoes", "goshpitala", "sam-sem", "the yard is full of bellies", etc.).

Option II: proverbs and sayings (“To endure an hour, but to live for a century”, “Ged the judgment, and it’s not true”, “The worm gnaws at the cabbage, but before that it disappears”, “Not with our mind, but By God's judgment" and etc.). We will talk more about the meaning of these sayings, but now we will only note the presence of these proverbs as a feature of Karataev's speech.

Option III: the manner of communication with the interlocutor ("... he said with a gentle, melodious affection ...", with a "restrained smile of affection", "was upset that Pierre did not have parents").

· He listened to others with equal interest and readiness and talked about himself. He immediately began to ask Pierre about life. For the first time (!) Someone became interested not in the captive Bezukhov, but in the man Bezukhov. In Plato's voice - affection.

- Describe the appearance of Karataev. (“When the next day, at dawn, Pierre saw his neighbor, the first impression of something round fully confirmed: the whole figure of Plato ... was round, the head was perfect round, back, chest, shoulders, even the arms that he wore, as if always intending to hug something, were round; pleasant smile and big brown tender eyes were round).

Natasha once said about Pierre that he « quadrangular». Pierre is attracted by this "roundness" of Karataev. And Pierre himself should, as it were "Cut corners" in your attitude to life and also become "Round" like Karataev.

- What is the meaning of Karataev's story about how he got into the soldiers?

· Everything will be done as it should, and everything - for the better. He got into the soldiers illegally, but it turned out that his big brother's family benefited from this. Karataev expresses the Tolstoyan idea that the truth lies in the rejection of one's “I” and in complete submission to fate. All of Karataev's proverbs boil down to this belief in the inevitability of doing what is destined, and this inevitable is the best.

– "Yes, the worm gnaws cabbage, but before that you disappear"- these are his thoughts on the war with the French. The French invasion is eating into Russia like a worm in a cabbage. But Karataev is sure that the worm disappears before the cabbage. It is a belief in the inevitability of God's judgment. Immediately in response to Pierre's request to clarify what this means, Plato responds "not with our mind, but with God's judgment."

- This proverb is the basis of karatayevism: how fewer people thinks so much the better. Reason cannot influence the course of life. Everything will be done according to God's will.

If we accept this philosophy as true (quietism), then it is possible not to suffer from the fact that there is so much evil in the world. You just have to give up the idea of ​​changing anything in the world.

Tolstoy trying to prove it but life refutes this philosophy.

- How did this karatay philosophy influence Pierre? (Pierre “felt that a previously destroyed world was now being erected in his soul with a new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations).

III... Development of the theme in "subsequent episodes"(vol. 4, part 2, chap. XII, XIV).

- What did Pierre strive for all his life? (To agree with myself).

- What was he looking for this calmness? (“... he looked for it in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the diaspora high life, in wine, in a heroic deed of self-sacrifice, in romantic love to Natasha; he sought it out by thought, and all these searches and attempts all deceived him ").

- In what has Pierre found happiness now? (Happiness is now in the absence of suffering, satisfaction of needs and "as a result, the freedom to choose occupations" ... "Satisfaction of needs - good food, cleanliness, freedom - now when he was deprived of all this, Pierre seemed to be perfect happiness ... ").

· A thought trying to raise a person above his immediate needs only brings confusion and uncertainty into a person's soul. A person is not called to do more than what concerns him personally. (Pierre "... did not even think about Russia, or about the war, or about politics, or about Napoleon"). A person must determine the boundaries of his freedom, says Tolstoy. And he wants to show that the freedom of man is not outside of him, but in himself.

- How does Pierre respond to the sentry's rude demand not to leave the ranks of prisoners? ("And he spoke aloud to himself:" The soldiers did not let me in. They caught me, locked me up. They are holding me captive. Who am I? Me? Me - my immortal soul! ").

Feeling inner freedom, becoming indifferent to the outward flow of life. Pierre is in an unusually joyful mood, the mood of a man who has finally discovered the truth.

IV... Conclusion.

Prince Andrew was close to this truth on Austerlitz ("Endless high sky"). "Endless distances" opened up to Nikolai Rostov, but they remained alien to him. And now Pierre, who has cognized the truth, not only sees this distance, but feels himself a particle of the world. (« High there was a full month in the bright sky. Forests and fields, previously unseen outside the camp, now opened up in the distance... And further farther of these forests and fields could be seen a bright, hesitant, calling into itself endless distance... Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the departing, playing stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" - thought Pierre ").

The composition "Pierre in Captivity (Episode Analysis)"

The heroes of Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace" receive their moral
lessons. The writer, examining the laws of life, determines
for each hero his own, difficult, sometimes even terrible path. By,
full of contradictions, awkwardness, but sometimes overshadowed by happy
in an instant of knowledge of the truth, the secrets of being, the beloved hero is walking
Tolstoy Pierre Bezukhov.
The episode "Pierre in Captivity" is the most important one in understanding
Tolstoy, a stage in the search for truth by Pierre Bezukhov. It is on
In these pages, Pierre's moral rebirth takes place.
Without captivity, without meeting with Karataev, consciousness would not have changed
and Pierre's worldview. These pages were needed compositionally.
Something had to happen that would change Pierre.
And this “that” was supposed to “shake” him. Tolstoy chooses by this
shock war and captivity.
And in the right moment fermenting mind Pierre Tolstoy sends
Karataev, who will direct Pierre on the "true path." Appear
Karataev later or earlier, nothing would have happened. He appears
only when Pierre is ready to understand him, that is, Tolstoy reduces
internal state of Pierre with the external conditions of his life.
But the meeting with Karataev is not the only reason for moral
the rebirth of Pierre. This meeting is final and most
an important condition of his life, but without previous external impulses
there would be no change in his consciousness.
Pierre even earlier, at the Borodino field, was struck by the calm
Russian soldier. Not by the calmness that “do not care” about everything, but by the
calmness that shows inner freedom.
It would seem, on the contrary, the common people, as the most dependent
class, must have a limited slavish consciousness. But here
paradox: an unfree people has complete inner freedom,
and the nobles - the freest class - for the most part, it is not
have. Pierre did not have it either. And already then he began to reflect on
this paradox. He wanted to understand why he has no peace of mind
and inner freedom and what is the reason for their presence
in a person? How to live, what to do to make them appear in
dumb? Pierre finds the solution to these issues in Platon Karataev -
one of those mysterious people that he thought about. Now
he could see and know what he had previously only thought about.
The horrors of war: the fire of Moscow, the looting of the French, captivity, and,
finally, the terrible murder of a young factory by people who
did not want to kill, - leads Pierre to despair. In him
“The belief in the improvement of the world, both in humanity and in one's own
soul, and into God. " “The world collapsed in his eyes and there were only meaningless
ruins. He felt he would return to faith in
life is not in his power. " This is what Pierre thought before meeting Karataev,
but already after their first meeting Pierre felt that “before
the destroyed world now with a new beauty, on some new and unshakable
foundations were erected in his soul. " That is, already only
from the first conversation Karataev acts on Pierre with his calmness
and inner freedom.
When Pierre was in despair of everything that had happened, sitting
next to him, Karataev was completely calm. It is clear that since he
soldier, he saw even more horrors of death than Pierre. And is
he is in the same conditions as Pierre, but he is calm and engaged
his everyday affairs, which he did in his village,
and in the regiment, and now here, in captivity. Pierre, and with him the reader,
find in Karataev the ability to rule over oneself. Circumstances
do not affect Karataev, they cannot change him, he always
remains as it is. He has calmness and inner
freedom that is not lost under external circumstances.
Karataev is calm, because, as he himself says, “not our
mind, but by God's judgment. " Life seems to him simple and clear,
and he lives like that: simple and clear. You don't have to think about the future
neither grieve about the past, nor worry about the present. He lives
the present minute and takes for granted everything that happened.
Its logic is simple, but it contains a special wisdom. He is calm
because he knows that all circumstances are not done according to his will,
but by the will of God. And he also knows: no matter what happens, even the seeming
at first grief, turns into happiness, for his good. “Thought
sorrow, but joy! " he says. And the main thing is that no one
can take away his freedom, no one has power over his inner
the world. Karataev “loved and lived lovingly with everything that brought him
life". And he lived, he loved life and just lived without creating for himself
perceived problems and inconveniences. And so he had everything: he had
complete freedom independent of anyone, he had an immortal soul.
And Pierre, through Karataev, also understands that he has all this.
And that's why he laughs: “Ha, ha, ha! The soldier did not let me in. Caught
me, locked me up. They held me captive. Who me? Me?
Me - my immortal soul! Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha. " Exactly then
Pierre has a feeling of inner freedom. How can they hold
him in captivity, if they have no power over his soul. Pierre feels
that he is not just a person, but a particle of something common, unlimited.
"And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!"
Now he realizes that before, when he lived in wealth and never
he did not deny himself anything, he was unhappy and not free.
And now, when he eats horse meat, when his whole body hurts,
when he is eaten by lice, when he can barely keep up with caked legs, he
happy and free! Because now Pierre knew with all his being
his own, that man was created for happiness and that happiness is in himself.
Everyone makes himself unhappy or happy. “The harder
became Pierre's position, the more terrible the future was, the
regardless of the position in which he was, came
joyful and reassuring thoughts to him. " Through Pierre Karataev
spiritually related to the people. And the common Russian people are a treasure trove,
combining kindness, simplicity and wisdom. Pierre enriched himself
this wisdom. He takes over love and faith from Karataev
in God, love and faith in life. And with this he makes his life simple
and clear. And it gives him a complete, joyful creation of freedom,
which is his happiness!
If Pierre found happiness by meeting Karataev, then why
Should we, the readers, not accept the wise words of Karataev?
It seems to me that the pages about Karataev and his influence on Pierre -
pages for all time. It is in them that the reader finds the answer to
eternal questions of the existence of human existence, which
interested people before, now, now, and there will be more
excite in the future. These are the pages that teach the reader how to do it.
live. It is in them that the secret of human happiness is hidden. And exactly
they tell you how to be free.
Thus, the episode "Pierre in Captivity" is not only luck
compositionally, which determined the appearance of Pierre
in a different, updated quality, but also brings to its logical conclusion
Tolstoy's idea: “A person is happy when he acquires an inner
freedom ". And just for the sake of gaining this truth is it worth living!

This part held Tolstoy's attention for a long time during the creation of an early version of the novel. Much is told there about Pierre: how his appearance changed, how Davout interrogated him (close to the completed text), what horror the execution of the arsonists caused in Pierre. But almost nothing was known about the people who surrounded him in captivity. Mentioned are only an old official, a five-year-old boy whom Pierre saved, and a soldier-neighbor who taught Pierre to tie someone else's gray trousers with a string around his ankles. The captured soldier still does not stand out in any way and plays a role in Pierre's life. Much later, he was transformed into Platon Karataev, and in the early version, the theme of Karataev was barely outlined. It is described in detail how the "secret friend" of Poncini came to Pierre's booth; outlined their bosso yes. After talking with the Frenchman, Pierre "thought for a long time about Natasha, about how in the future he would devote his whole life to her, how happy he would be with her presence, and how little he knew how to value life before."

The scene of the interrogation and execution of the "arsonists", not only in content, but also textually, was close to the final text from the very beginning. The subject of the most intense work remained a deep revolution in Pierre's consciousness, which took place after the "criminal murder" that he saw. The manuscripts tell how long, and most importantly, Tolstoy worked with excitement on this.

On the same day, Pierre met and became close to his comrades in captivity - soldiers, serfs and convicts, and in this closeness he found "interest, calmness and pleasure that he had not yet experienced." He enjoyed "a lunch of pickled cucumbers", "warmth when he lay down next to the old soldier", "a clear day and the view of the sun and the Sparrow Hills that could be seen from the door of the booth." Pierre's “moral pleasures” are analyzed in even more detail: his soul is now “clear and pure”, and those thoughts and feelings that had seemed important to him before were as if “washed away”. He understood that "for the happiness of life, one only needs to live without hardship, suffering, without participation in the evil that people do, and without the spectacle of this suffering."

Tolstoy was looking for a long time how to start Pierre's acquaintance with Karataev, and, most importantly, how to accurately determine the impression that this acquaintance made on Pierre. At first, the scene in the booth was constructed differently than in the final version: the action did not develop in chronological order. Earlier than talking about the situation and the people among whom Pierre found himself, the author reported about Pierre's state of affairs in the "new prisoner partnership": he "felt for the first time that all those conditional barriers - birth, education, moral habits, alienated him from his comrades, were destroyed. " And the most important thing to which the author was leading Pierre was also known in advance: “Before, Pierre tried to get closer to the people, but now he did not think about him with might and main; the rapprochement from that became itself and gave Pierre new pleasures that he had never experienced before. "

The execution of the "arsonists" became the most powerful impetus for a change in Pierre's outlook. “It seemed that the one who an old man, whom Pierre tried so vainly to defeat in himself by means of Masonic exercises. " A "new, different person" now lived in it.

The main idea in the work on this part (when two years later Tolstoy began preparing the volume for publication) was to connect the impressions of Borodin and the impressions of captivity, to show how “during these four weeks of captivity, deprivation, humiliation, suffering and, most importantly, fear, Pierre experienced more than in his whole life, ”and how all the trial was reflected in his attitude to life, giving that calmness and self-satisfaction, to which he had vainly sought before. “For a long time in his life he sought from different sides this peace of mind, harmony with himself, that which so struck him in the soldiers in the Battle of Borodino. He was looking for this in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the scattering of secular life, in wine, in the heroic deed of self-sacrifice, the typesetting manuscript added: “in romantic love for Natasha,” he was looking for this through thought, and all these searches and attempts deceived him. And he, without thinking about it, received this peace and this consent with himself only through physical and mental suffering, through the terrible half hour that he spent with the imaginary arsonists on the Maiden's Field. " This introduction now began the story of Pierre.

Tolstoy was trying to reveal what was meant by the concept of "before": "during the battle and after in Moscow when the people went beyond the Trekhgornaya Zastava", but immediately refused to interpret it - and without that it is clear what this meant "before."

Revealing his idea by his introduction, Tolstoy said that “out of 23 people of a wide variety of characters and ranks: officers, soldiers, officials, who then seemed in a fog to Pierre, a non-commissioned officer of the Tomsk regiment, taken by the French in a hospital, remained forever in his memory, with whom he became especially close. The name of this non-commissioned officer was Platon Karataev. " In Pierre's recollections, he "remained the personification of everything Russian, kind, happy and round." Then drawn external portrait Karataev and defined his spiritual image as the ideal of the national worldly wisdom... He was, writes Tolstoy, “like a living vessel filled with the purest folk wisdom". The sayings with which Karataev's speech was saturated from the first version were also “ for the most part sayings of that set of deep worldly wisdom, which the people live with. " Pierre “didn’t tell anyone about his life with such pleasure and details,

Pierre Bezukhov in captivity

(based on the novel "War and Peace")

Before proceeding to the question of how Pierre spent his time in captivity, we must figure out how he got there.

Pierre, like Bolkonsky, had a dream to be like Napoleon, to imitate him in every possible way and be like him. But each of them realized his mistake. So, Bolkonsky saw Napoleon when he was wounded at Austerlitz battle. Napoleon seemed to him "an insignificant person in comparison with what happened between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running over it." Pierre, on the other hand, hated Napoleon when he left his home, disguised and armed with a pistol, to take part in the people's defense of Moscow. Pierre recalls the kabbalistic meaning of his name (number 666, etc.) in connection with the name of Bonaparte and that he is destined to put an end to the power of the "beast". Pierre is going to kill Napoleon, even if he has to sacrifice own life... Due to the circumstances, he could not kill Napoleon, he was captured by the French and taken prisoner for 1 month.

If we consider the psychological impulses that occurred in Pierre's soul, then we can say that the Events Patriotic War allow Bezukhov to get out of that closed, insignificant sphere of established habits, everyday relationships that fettered and suppressed him. A trip to the field of the Battle of Borodino opens up a new, hitherto unfamiliar world to Bezukhov, reveals the real appearance of ordinary people. On Borodin's day, at the Rayevsky battery, Bezukhov witnesses the high heroism of the soldiers, their amazing self-control, their ability to simply and naturally perform the feat of selflessness. At the Borodino field, Pierre could not avoid a feeling of acute fear. “Oh, how terrible the fear, and how shamefully I surrendered myself to it! And they ... they were all the time to the end were firm, calm ”... - he thought. In Pierre's understanding, they were soldiers, those who were on the battery, and those who fed him, and those who prayed to the icon ... "They do not speak, but they do." this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so ”.

Remaining in Moscow during its capture by French troops, Bezukhov is faced with many unexpected phenomena for him, with conflicting facts and processes.

Arrested by the French, Pierre is experiencing the tragedy of a man sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, he experiences the deepest emotional shock, watching the execution of innocent residents of Moscow. And this triumph of cruelty, immorality, inhumanity suppresses Bezukhov: "... in his soul, as if suddenly that spring was pulled out, on which everything held ...". Just like Andrei, Bolkonsky, Pierre was acutely aware of not only his own imperfection, but also the imperfection of the world.

In captivity, Pierre had to endure all the horrors of a military court, the executions of Russian soldiers. Acquaintance with Platon Karataev in captivity contributes to the formation of a new outlook on life. "... Platon Karataev remained forever in Pierre's soul the most powerful and dear memory and the personification of everything" Russian, kind and round. "

Platon Karataev is meek, submissive to fate, gentle, passive and patient. Karataev is a vivid expression of a weak-willed acceptance of good and evil. This image is Tolstoy's first step on the path to apology (defense, praise, justification) of the patriarchal naive peasantry, which professed the religion of "non-resistance to evil by violence." The image of Karataev - case example of how false views can lead to creative breakdowns even brilliant artists... But it would be a mistake to think that Karataev personifies the entire Russian peasantry. Plato cannot be imagined with a weapon in his hands on the battlefield. If the army consisted of such soldiers, it would not have been able to defeat Napoleon. In captivity, Plato is constantly busy with something - “he knew how to do everything, not very well, but not bad either. He baked, boiled, sewed, planed, made boots. He was always busy, only at night he allowed himself the conversations he loved and the songs. "

In captivity, he addresses the issue of the sky, which worries many in Tolstov's novel. He sees "a full month" and "endless distance." Just as it is impossible to lock this month and distance in a barn with captives, so it is impossible to lock human soul... Thanks to the sky, Pierre felt free and full of strength for a new life.

In captivity, he will find the path to internal freedom, will join the people's truth and people's morality. Meeting with Platon Karataev, the bearer of popular truth - an era in the life of Pierre. Like Bazdeev, Karataev will enter his life as a spiritual teacher. But all the inner energy of Pierre's personality, the whole structure of his soul are such that, gladly accepting the proposed experience of his teachers, he does not obey them, but goes, enriched, further on his own path. And this path, according to Tolstoy, is the only one possible for a truly moral person.

Of great importance in the life of Pierre in captivity was the execution of prisoners.

“In front of Pierre’s eyes, the first two prisoners are shot, then two more. Bezukhov notes that horror and suffering are written not only on the faces of the prisoners, but also on the faces of the French. He does not understand why "justice" is being administered if both the "right" and the "guilty" suffer. Pierre is not shot. The execution was terminated. From the minute Pierre saw this terrible murder committed by people who did not want to do it, it was as if the spring on which everything held and seemed to be alive was suddenly pulled out in his soul, and everything fell into a heap of senseless rubbish. In him, although he did not realize himself, faith and the improvement of the world, both in the human, and in his soul, and in God, were destroyed.

In conclusion, we can say that “in captivity, Pierre learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in satisfying natural human needs, and that all misfortune comes not from lack, but from surplus; but now, in these last three weeks of the campaign, he learned another new comforting truth - he learned that there is nothing terrible in the world. "

/ / / Pierre in captivity (analysis of an episode from Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace")

Pierre Bezukhov is a character whose fate the reader observes from the beginning to the end of the novel "War and Peace". He can be confidently ranked among Tolstoy's favorite heroes. Lev Nikolaevich sympathetically describes the not very beautiful illegitimate son of a nobleman. Later it turns out that the writer sympathizes with the appearance, and the soul of the hero.

He goes through many blows of fate, he resists not only court intrigues, but also himself. In his life, several tipping points... One of them is being held captive. The war of 1812 left an imprint on the life of every Russian. Pierre took part in the battle at Borodino. Service in the army, participation in battles helped Pierre to free himself from the fear of death. During hostilities, the hero is captured.

The confinement of the body turned out to be a stepping stone to spiritual freedom. In captivity, Pierre Bezukhov meets Platon Karataev, a peasant from the village. Plato amazes young hero round body, pleasant voice and wisdom of life. It is Karataev who teaches Pierre to take life as a given. He claims that everything is happening as it should, you just need to come to terms with what is happening and if God's will is, everything will work out.

Pierre is captured at a time when he is experiencing the ruins of his soul. He lost faith in love, in the sincerity of those around him. He feels that he must change something in his life and within himself. Platon Karataev helps to reevaluate the situation. After talking with him, Pierre feels calm and spiritual harmony. Pierre finally understands that one does not always need to live with the mind, sometimes one should listen to one's feelings. If earlier Pierre was looking for meaning in love for Natasha, in heroism, now he realized that you cannot force happiness, you just need to be able to see it in the world around you.

Freed from captivity, Pierre Bezukhov followed the philosophy of Karataev for some time. But sail for a long time through life without internal searches the hero fails. His nature does not allow the hero to live passively, without finding himself. However, now the hero does not strain his soul so much, treating life problems with Karataev's simplicity.

Karataev remained in the memory and soul of Pierre as a symbol of the Russian people, their wisdom and tranquility. But social problems remain in the first place for Bezukhov. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge. He proves his position in the circles of aristocrats who are used to living only for themselves. To show the seriousness of the man's intentions, Lev Nikolaevich submits a dispute between Pierre and Nikolai Rostov.

At the end of the novel, the reader sees a new Pierre. it loving husband and a caring father. But he doesn't go to the safe haven family life... The hero remains committed to the public interest. He opposes reaction, theft and other manifestations of the new order in Russia. Perhaps the Russian people themselves, embodied in Pierre's recollections of Karataev, help in this struggle. After all, after captivity, Bezukhov knows that he is fighting for people like Plato.

Analyzing the changes that happened to Pierre in captivity, the reader can understand how Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy himself relates to the concepts of happiness, the meaning of life, the purpose of a person.