Hello readers of the headlines!
In the previous article, I introduced the "2-3-4" reading rules of War and Peace, as well as the background of the story and the structure of the novel's framework. So today we're going to talk about Tolstoy, about the three key characters in the novel War and Peace, namely Andre, Pierre, and Natasha.
。 Let's take the three protagonists of the novel as an example to see how Tolstoy presented this "dialectic of the mind" process.
1. Andrea
Born into an aristocratic family, and who was beautiful and brave, Tolstoy made him a messenger for the Russian general Kutuzov. Before the war broke out, Andrea was very meritorious and famous, and he felt that he had to fight bravely for the motherland, obtain military merit, defend the country, and make a name for his ancestors. But, as he lay on the ground and looked at the sky in a trance, he suddenly felt that man was so small compared to this lofty sky, and that this cruel struggle between men was so pointless. This description in the novel is very famous, as Tolstoy wrote it (Book I, Part III, Verse 16):
"How quiet, solemn, solemn, not at all like my running," thought Duke Andrea, "not like us running, shouting, fighting, not at all like the Frenchman and our artillerymen, fighting with hatred and horror, fighting each other for a scrubble, and the clouds floating in this high sky, not at all like ours." Why hadn't I seen this high sky before? I finally saw it at this moment, how happy I was. yes! Except for this lofty sky, everything is empty, everything is deception. Nothing else exists, nothing exists. Not even the sky exists, nothing but silence and solemnity. Thank God! ......”
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And when Andre suddenly heard Natasha singing in the night. Her soft singing touched Andrea. His mind also produced a feeling of spring. An unprovoked sense of joy and revival struck him, and Andre was resurrected!
However, this idea is different from André's initial attitude of wanting to establish a meritorious name, the so-called dialectic is the negation of negation, and the character of André has also undergone a kind of negative negation of the idea of development, which is Tolstoy's dialectic of the mind. We can say with great certainty that this passage of his thoughts must have been the thoughts of Tolstoy himself, his outlook on life and the world.
2. Pierre
Pierre was originally a playboy who made trouble everywhere, but his upright and kind nature made him gradually begin to think about the meaning of life, whether private property was reasonable, and whether the society in which he lived was fair. He married Helen and wanted to find peace and happiness in his family life, but he was disappointed by his wife's empty and boring life; he decided to be kind to people and returned to his estate to carry out land reform, but he did not succeed; he joined the Masonics and engaged in charity, from which he gained a sense of accomplishment, but did not really solve the problem of the meaning of life.
As mentioned earlier, on his way back from the South, Pierre went to visit his friend Andrea, and they had a conversation on the ferry (Book II, Part I, Verse 12). Andrea and Pierre's conversation on the ferry is an important chapter in the inner world of Pierre (and Andrea). Pierre said to Andre:
"You say you cannot see the kingdom of good and truth on earth. I can't see either. If we see our life as the end of everything, it is impossible to see it. On earth, in this land (Pierre pointing to the wilderness), there is no truth, only lies and sin. But in the world, in the whole world, there is still a kingdom of truth, and we are now children of the land, but eternally we are the children of the whole world.
I feel that not only can I not disappear like everything in the world, but I will always exist in the past and in the future. I felt that in addition to me, there were gods above my head, and there was truth in this world. ”
Until the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Pierre's fate and the fate of the nation were linked, and he actively participated in the war against Napoleon; after being captured by the French army, he came into contact with ordinary Russian peasant soldiers, whose piety and simplicity and kindness touched him.
3. Natasha
She was simple and innocent, because she was close to the nature of Russia, close to the simple people of the countryside, Tolstoy also gave her a beautiful voice and a lively nature, of course, she also underwent tempering in the "big classroom" of life: engaged to Andrea, seduced by Anatoly Kurakin, broke and reunited with Andrea, until finally married Pierre, became a good wife and mother.
In any case, all three characters showed pure moral feelings, and Tolstoy pinned the noble qualities of the Russians on several characters, thus shaping them as positive representatives of the Russian nation.