Essay “Family Thought” in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"

In the novel L.N. Tolstoy describes the life of several families: the Rostovs, Bolkonskys, Kuragins, Bergs, and in the epilogue also the families of the Bezukhovs (Pierre and Natasha) and the Rostovs (Nikolai Rostov and Marya Bolkonskaya). These families are very different, each is unique, but without the common, most necessary basis of family existence - loving unity between people - a true family, according to Tolstoy, is impossible. Comparing Various types family relationships, the author shows what a family should be like, what true family values and how they influence the formation of personality. It is no coincidence that all the heroes who are spiritually close to the author were brought up in “real” families, and, on the contrary, egoists and opportunists grew up in “false” families in which people are related to each other only formally.

The Rostov and Bolkonsky families are especially close to the writer. He describes in detail the daily life of the Rostovs in the Moscow house, in Otradnoye, and the Bolkonskys in the estates of Lysye Gory and Bogucharovo. The Rostovs and Bolkonskys have a House, they have a great universal value.

The Rostov family is an ideal harmonious whole. Love binds all family members. Only Vera is cold and alien. It is no coincidence that she soon “falls out” of the Rostov family and marries the calculating Berg.

The Rostovs have a sincere relationship. The name day scene in the Moscow house of the Rostovs, the Yuletide fun with the mummers in Otradnoye are filled with true joy, cordiality, and hospitality. Parents raise their children by giving them all their love. They strive for mutual understanding and mutual assistance. So, when Nikolai lost forty thousand to Dolokhov, he did not hear a word of reproach from his father and was able to pay the debt, although this amount threatened to ruin the Rostovs. The children are grateful to their parents: Rostov is trying to pay off the debt as quickly as possible; Natasha selflessly takes care of her mother, saving her from death after the tragic news of Petya’s death. Nikolai in the epilogue devotes his life to his family and mother.

The Rostovs are simple, warm-hearted people. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy gave them the name Prostov in his drafts. Heart life, wisdom, honesty and integrity define their relationships and behavior.

The Bolkonsky family structure is completely different. Their life is subject to a strict routine and strict discipline. At first glance, the relationships in this family lack cordiality and mutual understanding. Old Prince- a despot who torments his daughter with endless nagging, geometry lessons, and yells at her. Princess Marya is afraid of her father. Prince Andrei is forced to postpone his marriage to Natasha for whole year at the father's request. However, internally these people are very close to each other. Their love is shown in difficult times. When the news arrived about the death of Prince Andrei, Marya, hugging her father, said: “Let’s cry together.” Before his death, the old prince wants to see only his daughter; he shows her love and pity, which he previously hid so as not to spoil her with affection.

Both the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys are patriots. By their behavior during the Patriotic War they express the national spirit. Prince Nikolai Andreevich dies because his heart could not stand the surrender of Smolensk. Marya rejects the French general's offer of protection. The Rostovs sacrifice property, giving carts to the wounded, and make a difficult decision: they agree to let young Petya go into the army. Nikolai and Andrey defend the Fatherland on the battlefield. They live in the interests of the nation. 1812 reveals best features every family.

Kuragin family in peaceful life appears in all the insignificance of his egoism, soullessness, immorality. The Kuragins sought to use people as a means to achieve their goals. Prince Vasily wanted to profitably marry Anatole to the richest bride - Marya Bolkonskaya. This intrigue did not work out for him, but he secured Helen, ruining Pierre’s life. All the base qualities of the Kuragins appeared during the War of 1812. They led the same idle life in the salons. Prince Vasily speculated on patriotism, and Helen was busy organizing her personal life. However, a misfortune happened in this “false” family - Anatoly’s leg was amputated, and he subsequently died. However, Tolstoy deliberately does not tell how the Kuragins perceived this. This family is incapable of true human feelings.
The family of Pierre and Natasha as depicted by Tolstoy is almost an idyll. The purpose of their marriage is not only procreation and raising children, but also spiritual unity. Pierre “after seven years of marriage... felt a joyful, firm consciousness that he was not a bad person, and he felt this because he saw himself reflected in his wife.” Natasha is her husband’s “mirror,” reflecting “only what was truly good.” They are so close that they are able to guess each other’s desires and thoughts. Natasha’s whole world is her children, her husband. Tolstoy believed that this was a woman’s calling.

Maria is just as absorbed in her family. Countess Rostova contributes to family relationships kindness, tenderness, high spirituality. Nikolai is a good owner, the support of the family. They complement each other, feeling like one. Nikolai compares his wife to a finger that cannot be cut off. Nikolai’s love for his wife, Tolstoy emphasizes, is “firm, tender, proud,” and “the feeling of surprise at her sincerity” does not fade away in him.

The new families that the reader observes in the epilogue are “genuine” families. The author shows that by creating a family, a person takes a step towards “living” life, approaches “organic”, natural being. It is in creating a family that Tolstoy’s “favorite” heroes find their meaning of existence. The family completes the stage of their youthful “disorder” and becomes a kind of result of spiritual searches.

“War and Peace” is a Russian national epic, which reflected the character of a great people at the moment when its historical destinies were being decided. Tolstoy, trying to cover everything that he knew and felt at that time, gave in the novel a set of life, morals,...

Tolstoy portrays the Rostov and Bolkonsky families with great sympathy, because: they are participants in historical events, patriots; they are not attracted to careerism and profit; they are close to the Russian people. Characteristic features of the Rostov Bolkonskys 1. Older generation....

Why do people become friends? If parents, children, and relatives are not chosen, then everyone is free to choose friends. Therefore, a friend is a person whom we completely trust, whom we respect, and whose opinion we take into account. But that doesn't mean friends...

1867 L. M. Tolstoy completed work on the epoch-making novel of his work, “War and Peace.” The author noted that in “War and Peace” he “loved the people’s thought,” poetizing the simplicity, kindness and morality of the Russian people. This “folk thought” by L. Tolstoy...

Tolstoy considered family to be the basis of everything. It contains love, and the future, and peace, and goodness. Families make up society, the moral laws of which are laid down and preserved in the family. The writer’s family is a society in miniature. Tolstoy's heroes are almost all family people, and he characterizes them through families.

In the novel, the life of three families unfolds before us: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins. In the epilogue of the novel, the author shows the happy “new” families of Nikolai and Marya, Pierre and Natasha. Each family is endowed with characteristic features and also embodies its own view of the world and its values. Members of these families participate in one way or another in all the events described in the work. The novel covers fifteen years of life, families are traced through three generations: fathers, children and grandchildren.

The Rostov family is an example of an ideal relationship between loved ones who love and respect each other. The father of the family, Count Ilya Rostov, is depicted as a typical Russian gentleman. The manager Mitenka constantly deceives the count. Only Nikolai Rostov exposes and fires him. No one in the family accuses anyone, suspects anyone, or deceives anyone. They are one whole, always sincerely ready to help each other. Joys and sorrows are experienced together, together they look for answers to difficult questions. They quickly experience troubles; the emotional and intuitive principles predominate in them. All Rostovs are passionate people, but the mistakes and mistakes of family members do not cause hostility and hostility towards each other. The family is upset and grieving when Nikolai Rostov loses at cards, experiences the story of Natasha’s love for Anatoly Kuragin and an attempt to escape with him, although the entire secular society discusses this shameful event.

In the Rostov family there is a “Russian spirit”, everyone loves national culture and art. They live in accordance with national traditions: they are happy to have guests, they are generous, they love living in the countryside, they enjoy taking part in folk holidays. All Rostovs are talented and have musical abilities. The courtyard people who serve in the house are deeply devoted to the masters and live with them like one family.

During the war, the Rostov family remained in Moscow until last moment while it is still possible to evacuate. Their house houses the wounded, who need to be taken out of the city so that they are not killed by the French. The Rostovs decide to give up their acquired property and give away the carts for the soldiers. This is how the true patriotism of this family is manifested.

A different order reigns in the Bolkonsky family. All living feelings are driven to the very bottom of the soul. In the relationship between them there is only cold rationality. Prince Andrei and Princess Marya do not have a mother, and the father replaces parental love with over-demandingness, which makes his children unhappy. Princess Marya is a girl with a strong, courageous character. She was not broken by her father’s cruel attitude, she did not become embittered, and did not lose her pure and gentle soul.

Old Bolkonsky is sure that in the world “there are only two virtues - activity and intelligence.” He himself works all his life: he writes the charter, works in the workshop, studies with his daughter. Bolkonsky is a nobleman of the old school. He is a patriot of his homeland and wants to benefit it. Having learned that the French are advancing, he becomes the head of the people's militia, ready to defend his land with arms in hand, to prevent the enemy from setting foot on it.

Prince Andrei looks like his father. He also strives for power, works in Speransky’s committee, wants to become a big man, to serve for the good of the country. Although he promised himself never to participate in battles again, in 1812 he went to fight again. Saving his homeland is a sacred matter for him. Prince Andrei dies for his homeland like a hero.

The Kuragin family brings evil and destruction to the world. Using the example of the members of this family, Tolstoy showed how deceptive external beauty can be. Helen and Anatole are beautiful people, but this beauty is imaginary. External shine hides the emptiness of their low souls. Anatole leaves a bad memory of himself everywhere. Because of money, he wooes Princess Marya and destroys the relationship between Prince Andrei and Natasha. Helen loves only herself, destroys Pierre's life, disgraces him.

Lies, hypocrisy, and contempt for others reign in the Kuragin family. The father of the family, Prince Vasily, is a court intriguer, he is only interested in gossip and vile deeds. For the sake of money, he is ready to do anything, even commit a crime. His behavior in the scene of the death of Count Bezukhov is the height of blasphemy and contempt for the laws of human morality.

There is no spiritual relationship in the Kuragin family. Tolstoy does not show us their house. They are primitive, undeveloped people, whom the author portrays in satirical tones. They cannot achieve happiness in life.

According to Tolstoy, good family- this is a reward for righteous life. In the finale, he rewards his heroes with happiness in family life.

“Family Thought” in L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” The main idea in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy“War and peace,” along with popular thought,” is “family thought.” The writer believed that the family is the basis of the entire society, and it reflects the processes that occur in society.

The novel shows heroes who go through a certain path of ideological and spiritual development; through trial and error, they try to find their place in life and realize their purpose. These characters are shown against the backdrop of family relationships. So, families appear before us Rostov and Bolkonsky. Tolstoy depicted in his novel the entire Russian nation from top to bottom, thereby showing that the top of the nation had become spiritually dead, having lost contact with the people. He shows this process using the example of the family of Prince Vasily Kuragin and his children, who are characterized by the expression of all the negative qualities inherent in people of high society - extreme selfishness, baseness of interests, lack of sincere feelings.

All the heroes of the novel are bright individuals, but the members of the same family have a certain common feature that unites them all.

Thus, the main feature of the Bolkonsky family can be called the desire to follow the laws of reason. None of them, except, perhaps, Princess Marya, is characterized by an open manifestation of their feelings. The image of the head of the family, the old prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, embodies the best features of the ancient Russian nobility. He is a representative of an ancient aristocratic family, his character bizarrely combines the morals of an imperious nobleman, before whom all the household are in awe, from the servants to his own daughter, an aristocrat proud of his long pedigree, the traits of a man of great intelligence and simple habits. At a time when no one required women to show any special knowledge, he teaches his daughter geometry and algebra, motivating it like this: “I don’t want you to be like our stupid ladies.” He educated his daughter in order to develop in her the main virtues, which, in his opinion, were “activity and intelligence.”

His son, Prince Andrei, also embodied the best features of the nobility, the progressive noble youth. Prince Andrei has his own path to understanding real life. And he will go through errors, but his unerring moral sense will help him get rid of false ideals. So, Napoleon and Speransky turn out to be debunked in his mind, and his life will come Love To Natasha, so unlike all the other ladies of high society, the main features of which, in his opinion and the opinion of his father, are “selfishness, vanity, insignificance in everything.” Natasha will become for him the personification of real life, opposing the falsehood of the world. Her betrayal of him is tantamount to the collapse of an ideal. Just like his father, Prince Andrei is intolerant of simple human weaknesses that his wife, the most ordinary woman, has, a sister who is looking for some special truth from “God’s people,” and many other people whom he encounters in life.

A peculiar exception in the Bolkonsky family is Princess Marya. She lives only for the sake of self-sacrifice, which is elevated to moral principle, defining her entire life. She is ready to give all of herself to others, suppressing personal desires. Submission to her fate, to all the whims of her domineering father, who loves her in his own way, religiosity is combined in her with a thirst for simple, human happiness. Her humility is the result of a peculiarly understood sense of duty as a daughter who does not have the moral right to judge her father, as she says to Mademoiselle Burien: “I will not allow myself to judge him and would not want others to do so.” But nevertheless, when self-esteem demands, she can show the necessary firmness. This is revealed with particular force when her sense of patriotism, which distinguishes all Bolkonskys, is insulted. However, she can sacrifice her pride if it is necessary to save another person. So, she asks for forgiveness, although she is not guilty of anything, from her companion for herself and the serf servant, on whom her father’s wrath fell.

Another family depicted in the novel is in some way opposed to the Bolkonsky family. This is the Rostov family. If the Bolkonskys strive to follow the arguments of reason, then Rostov obey the voice of feelings. Natasha is little guided by the requirements of decency, she is spontaneous, she has many child traits, which is highly valued by the author. He emphasizes many times that Natasha is ugly, unlike Helen Kuragina. It’s not the outside that’s important to him. beauty a person, but his internal qualities.

The behavior of all members of this family shows high nobility of feelings, kindness, rare generosity, naturalness, closeness to the people, moral purity and integrity. The local nobility, unlike the highest St. Petersburg nobility, is faithful to national traditions. It was not for nothing that Natasha, dancing with her uncle after the hunt, “knew how to understand everything that was in Anisya, and in Anisya’s father, and in her aunt, and in her mother, and in every Russian person.”

Tolstoy's great importance attached to family ties, the unity of the whole family. Although the Bolkonsky family should unite with the Rostov family through the marriage of Prince Andrei and Natasha, her mother cannot come to terms with this, cannot accept Andrei into the family, “she wanted to love him like a son, but she felt that he was a stranger and terrible to her Human". Families cannot unite through Natasha and Andrei, but are united through the marriage of Princess Marya to Nikolai Rostov. This marriage is successful, it saves the Rostovs from ruin.

The novel also shows the Kuragin family: Prince Vasily and his three children: the soulless doll Helen, the “dead fool” Ippolit and the “restless fool” Anatole. Prince Vasily is a calculating and cold intriguer and ambitious man who lays claim to Kirila's inheritance Bezukhova without having any direct right to do so. He is connected with his children only by blood ties and common interests: they care only about their well-being and position in society.

The daughter of Prince Vasily, Helen, is a typical social beauty with impeccable manners and reputation. She amazes everyone with her beauty, which is described several times as “marble,” that is, cold beauty, devoid of feeling and soul, the beauty of a statue. The only thing that occupies Helen is her salon and social receptions.

The sons of Prince Vasily, in his opinion, are both “fools.” His father managed to place Hippolytus in the diplomatic service, and his fate is considered settled. The brawler and rake Anatole causes a lot of trouble for everyone around him, and, in order to calm him down, Prince Vasily wants to marry him to the rich heiress Princess Marya. This marriage cannot take place due to the fact that Princess Marya does not want to part with her father, and Anatole indulges in his former amusements with renewed vigor.

Thus, people who are not only related by blood, but also spiritually, unite into families. The ancient Bolkonsky family is not interrupted by the death of Prince Andrei; Nikolenka Bolkonsky remains, who will probably continue the tradition moral quest his father and grandfather. Marya Bolkonskaya brings high spirituality to the Rostov family. So, “family thought,” along with “folk thought,” is the main one in L. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.” Tolstoy's family is being studied in turning points stories. Having shown three families most fully in the novel, writer makes it clear to the reader that the future belongs to families such as the Rostov and Bolkonsky families, who embody sincerity of feelings and high spirituality, the most prominent representatives of which each go through their own path of rapprochement with the people.

Composition. “Family Thought” in the novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy

In the novel "War and Peace" L.N. Tolstoy singled out and considered the most significant "people's thought." This theme is most vividly and multifacetedly reflected in those parts of the work that tell about the war. In the depiction of the “world,” the “family thought” predominates, playing a very important role in the novel.

Almost all the heroes of War and Peace are tested by love. They do not all come to true love and mutual understanding, to moral beauty, and not all at once, but only after going through mistakes and the suffering that redeems them, developing and purifying the soul.

Andrei Bolkonsky's path to happiness was thorny. A twenty-year-old inexperienced young man, carried away and blinded by “external” beauty, marries Lisa. However, very quickly Andrei came to a painful and depressing understanding of how “cruelly and irreparably” he had made a mistake. In a conversation with Pierre, Andrei, almost in despair, utters the words: “Never, never get married... until you have done everything you could... My God, what I wouldn’t give now not to be married! "

Family life did not bring Bolkonsky happiness and peace; he was burdened by it. He did not love his wife, but rather despised her as a child of an empty, stupid “world”. Prince Andrei was constantly oppressed by the feeling of the uselessness of his life, equating him with a “court lackey and idiot.”

Then there was the sky of Austerlitz, the death of Lisa, and a deep spiritual change, and fatigue, melancholy, contempt for life, disappointment. Bolkonsky at that time was like an oak tree, which “stood like an old, angry and contemptuous monster between the smiling birches” and “did not want to submit to the charm of spring.” “Yes, he’s right, this oak tree is right a thousand times,” thought Prince Andrei, “...our life is over.” This is how he first met Natasha in Otradnoye. And from contact with her natural life, illuminated by joy, “an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes” arose in Andrei’s soul. He left transformed, and again in front of him was an oak tree, but not an old, ugly oak tree, but covered with “a tent of lush, dark greenery,” so that “no sores, no old mistrust, no grief - nothing was visible.”

Love, like a miracle, revives Tolstoy's heroes to a new life. True feeling to Natasha, so unlike the empty, absurd women of the “society,” came to Prince Andrei later and with incredible force turned him over and renewed his soul. He “seemed and was a completely different, new person,” “as if he had stepped out of a stuffy room into the free light of God.” True, even love did not help Prince Andrei to humble his pride; he never forgave Natasha for “betrayal.” Only after a mortal wound and a new mental fracture and rethinking of life did Bolkonsky understand her suffering, shame and repentance and realize the cruelty of the break with her. “I love you more, better than before,” he said then to Natasha, but nothing, not even her fiery feeling, could keep him in this world.

Pierre's fate is somewhat similar to the fate of his best friend. Just like Andrei, who in his youth was carried away by Liza, who has just arrived from Paris, childishly enthusiastic, Pierre is carried away by the “doll” beauty of Helen. The example of Prince Andrei did not become a “science” for him; Pierre was convinced from his own experience that external beauty is not always the key to internal - spiritual beauty.

Pierre felt that there were no barriers between him and Helen, she “was terribly close to him,” her beautiful “marble” body had power over him. And although Pierre felt that this was “not good for some reason,” he weakly succumbed to the feeling instilled in him by this “depraved woman” and eventually became her husband. As a result, a bitter feeling of disappointment, gloomy despondency, contempt for his wife, for life, for himself gripped him some time after the wedding, when Helen’s “mystery” turned into spiritual emptiness, stupidity and debauchery.

Having met Natasha, Pierre, like Andrei, was amazed and attracted by her purity and naturalness. Feelings for her had already timidly begun to grow in his soul when Volkonsky and Natasha fell in love with each other. The joy of their happiness mixed in his soul with sadness. Unlike Andrey, Pierre's kind heart understood and forgave Natasha after the incident with Anatole Kuragin. Although he tried to despise her, when he saw the exhausted, suffering Natasha, “a never-before-experienced feeling of pity filled Pierre’s soul.” And love entered his “soul, which blossomed towards a new life, softened and encouraged.” Pierre understood Natasha, perhaps because her connection with Anatole was similar to his infatuation with Helen. Natasha believed in inner beauty and the purity of the depraved and empty Kuragin, in communication with whom she, just like Pierre and Helen, “felt with horror that there was no barrier between him and her.”

After a disagreement with his wife, Pierre's journey through life continues. He became interested in Freemasonry, then there was the war, and the half-childish idea of ​​killing Napoleon, and burning Moscow, terrible moments of waiting for death and captivity. Having gone through suffering, Pierre's renewed, purified soul retained his love for Natasha. Having met her, who had also changed greatly, had gone through her own path of spiritual quest and suffering, and had become wiser, he did not immediately recognize her, although he noticed the attentive, affectionate gaze of “a sweet, kind, glorious creature.” Pierre did not recognize Natasha because in her “kind, sad, questioning eyes” there was no “smile of the joy of life” characteristic of them. They both believed that after everything they had experienced they would be able to feel this joy, but love awoke in their hearts, and suddenly it “smelled and filled” with “long-forgotten happiness”, and the “forces of life” began to beat, and a “joyful, unexpected madness” took possession of them.

“Love has awakened, and life has awakened.”

The power of love revived Natasha after the mental apathy caused by the death of Prince Andrei. She thought that her life was over, but the love for her mother that arose with renewed vigor showed her that her essence... - love - was still alive in her. Her whole being was filled with a feeling of “love, boundless love... for everything that was close to a loved one,” a feeling of “pity, suffering for others and a passionate desire to give all of myself in order to help them.” This all-crushing power of love, which called Natasha herself to life, “persistent, patient,” called to life the people she loved, to whom it was directed.

The fates of Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya were not easy. Quiet, meek, ugly in appearance, but beautiful in soul, the princess during her father’s life did not hope to get married or raise children. The only wooer, and even then for the sake of a dowry, Anatole, of course, could not understand her high spirituality, moral beauty, her desire for the “infinite, eternal and perfect.”

A chance meeting with Rostov, his noble deed awakened an unfamiliar, exciting feeling in Marya. Her soul recognized in him a “noble, firm, selfless soul.”

Each meeting revealed each other more and more to them, connected them. In the presence of her beloved, Princess Marya was transformed, “some new force of life took possession of her.” Awkward, shy, she became graceful and feminine, but in the presence of Anatole, the princess shrank, closed in on herself and became even uglier. When Rostov looked at her, he saw how “all her inner work, dissatisfied with herself, her suffering, the desire for good, humility, love, self-sacrifice - all this shone in... radiant eyes, in a thin smile, in every feature of her gentle face."

Nikolai admired the beautiful soul that had revealed itself to him and felt that Marya was better and higher than both himself and Sonechka, whom, as it seemed to him before, he loved, in whom she remained a “barren flower.” Sonya was always correct, like Vera, her soul did not live, did not make mistakes and did not suffer and, according to Tolstoy, did not “deserve” family happiness. Rostov also felt that he would never fully understand Princess Marya, and she also understood this, but her “submissive, tender” love seemed to become stronger from this. In their family, both happy and calm, there was no endless understanding, dissolution in each other, which, as Tolstoy believed, was the ideal of marriage.

The Bezukhov family became such an ideal in War and Peace. Natasha internally merged with Pierre, "gave herself... all - that is, with all her soul, leaving not a single corner open to him." She stopped paying attention to the “external” means that many thought were necessary to maintain love. She did not take beautiful poses, did not dress up, did not sing, left society, since all this was weak and ridiculous in front of “something solid, like the connection between her soul and body,” which was between her and her husband. The old countess, with her maternal instinct, guessed that “all Natasha’s impulses began only with the need to have a family, to have a husband.” And when they appeared, she gave them all of herself, served only them and all her interests, her whole life were focused on them. She fulfilled Pierre’s every wish, tried to guess his thoughts and will. Those around her noticed that she was arguing with them using her husband’s words. Often, when they argued, Pierre found in Natasha’s words his own thought, cleared of all superficial things. The wife unconsciously was a reflection of himself, absorbing all the best that she found in her husband.

In the epilogue of the novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy exalts the spiritual unity of people, which forms the basis of nepotism. Was created new family, in which seemingly different principles - the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys - were combined. “As in every real family, in the Lysogorsk house several completely different worlds lived together, which, each maintaining its own peculiarity and making concessions to one another, merged into one harmonious whole.”

The history of a people consists of the destinies of millions of citizens of the state. In the works of Leo Tolstoy, the theme of family ties, their honor and dignity occupies key place. A comprehensively developed family idea in the novel “War and Peace” is the basis storyline. The writer repeatedly emphasizes that great people consists of little people who pass on traditions and virtues to their children from generation to generation.

The Rostov family is an example of noble happiness.

Count Ilya Andreevich Rostov had four children of his own; the fifth girl, Sonya, was his niece, but was raised like his own daughter. Countess, faithful wife and a caring mother, looked exhausted by four births, but was sensitive to the fruits of her torment. Children grew up without strictness, surrounded by care and tenderness.

The author treats this house with love, presenting the owners as kind and hospitable people. Mutual respect, sincerity and decency reign here. Future mothers of the fatherland and loyal subjects of the sovereign in the person of men are brought up in simplicity of communication.

The gates of the count's estate are open to guests. IN big house luxurious, as the hospitable hostess has been accustomed since childhood, noisy and cheerful from the many-faced cries of children who feel free and spacious. Using the example of the Rostovs, one can trace family values, as Leo Tolstoy understood them.

The image of Natasha Rostova, the youngest daughter, her youth and life are typical of a Russian noblewoman early XIX century. Society shapes the meaning of a girl's life, which is to become a devoted wife and caring mother.

In a paired union, Natasha and Pierre Bezukhov manage to recreate the family model of society, where the father behaves as the spiritual legislator of the family, the mother bears the burden of the keeper of the hearth, and the children promise to provide for the future.

Princes Bolkonsky, patriots and defenders of the state.

The main theme of raising men in the Bolkonsky family is duty to the Sovereign and the Fatherland. Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky as old general retired, gravitates towards a simplified level of life at the level of Spartan traditions. A soldier at heart, he honors the memory of Catherine II as a great woman of the past. This is an ideological servant of the imperial system, ready to die for state priorities.

Being an educated person, the old man values ​​intelligence and activity in people, forming these qualities in his children. In the Bolkonsky house, work is in full swing from morning to evening, because the head of the family is constantly at work, either creating a new military manual, or with pleasure, rolling up his sleeves, tinkering at the machine.

When Andrei goes to war, leaving his pregnant wife, the father blesses his son’s decision, because in their family the interests of the country have always stood above personal circumstances.

The life values ​​instilled by the father form in the daughter such a rare character trait as selflessness. Being a rich and educated bride, Marya Bolkonskaya could have gotten married back in early youth, but remained with her father until the end of his days. The author presented the complex relationship between father and daughter as a psychological drama between a tyrant and a victim. Relatives remain devoted friend friend, neglecting painful situations that arise as a result of misunderstanding.

In the Kuragin family, the greedy father raised unworthy children

Prince Vasily Kuragin served at the emperor's court with benefit for himself. A calculating mind and a thirst for enrichment guide the nobleman’s actions. Having influence in the royal palace, an official rarely uses it to help others, using it in his own interests.

Kuragin speaks poorly of his own children, considering them a punishment from above, from God. Lev Tolstoy presents Hippolyta, Anatoly and Ellen to the reader as an example of unworthy behavior in society. These adult children are aimed at entertainment, an idle lifestyle; their characters are based on cynicism and indifference to all the problems of the country.

The author mentions Princess Kuragina twice, calls her fat and old, expressing his rejection, condemning her for complete indifference in raising children. After all, in order to form virtue in a child, you need to work hard, spend a lot of time, which the Countess did not deign to do.

According to the author, Helen deserves censure because she does not want to give birth to children. But in the family where the girl grew up, there was neither affection, like the Rostovs, nor honor and decency, like the Bolkonskys. Therefore, having married Pierre Bezukhov, the young woman recreated the life she knew - without love and tender feelings.

There is a struggle for inheritance in the Bezukhov family

The old count had so many illegitimate children that he himself did not know them all. He lived out his life surrounded by three nieces, and they hoped that after death their uncle would provide for them. Kirill Vladimirovich's fortune was considered enormous. Numerous close and distant relatives surrounded the dying nobleman with their attention, hoping for wealth.

The father loved Pierre Bezukhov more than other children, so he gave his son a decent education abroad. Compared to all the contenders for the inheritance, Pierre looks like a disinterested, decent and naive young man.

The main intrigue for the count's inheritance is led by Anna Drubetskaya on the one hand and Prince Kuragin on the other, having enlisted the support of the nieces of the hangers-on. The Kuragins are the direct heirs of the old man’s previously deceased legal wife. And Drubetskaya is the niece of Kirill Bezukhov himself, in addition, Pierre Kirillovich baptized her son Boris.

His Excellency was smart person, foresaw human passions by inheritance, so he submitted a petition to Emperor Alexander I himself so that Pierre would be recognized as his own son. The king granted the request of the dying nobleman. So Pierre received the title of count and the most profitable fortune in Russia.

Conclusion: family thought is one of the main themes of the novel “War and Peace,” which defines the state fortress as the fortress of an individual family in the state.

Description of the presentation by individual slides:

1 slide

Slide description:

L.N. Tolstoy Novel “War and Peace” Family thought through the Rostov and Bolkonsky family

2 slide

Slide description:

Family of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys Rostovs Bolkonskys 1. Older generation The Rostovs’ parents are hospitable, simple-minded, trusting, generous (the episode with money for Drubetskaya; Mitenka, Sonya, brought up in the family). The relationship between parents is mutual respect, respect (treatment). The position of the mother is the position of the mistress of the house (name day). The attitude towards guests is cordiality towards everyone without honoring ranks (name day). The old prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky is stubborn and domineering, not bowing to anyone. He was exiled to the village, but under the new reign he was allowed to enter the capital, but he could not forgive the insult and remained to live in the Bald Mountains. He considered idleness and superstition to be the main vices, and activity and intelligence to be the virtues. He was constantly busy writing his memoirs, doing calculations on higher mathematics, turning snuff boxes on a machine, working in the garden and observing buildings. The main thing is honor.

3 slide

Slide description:

4 slide

Slide description:

4. Close to nature. They live more often on estates than in capitals. The ability to subtly feel nature ( Moonlight night in Otradnoye; Yuletide rides). A feeling of harmony between man and nature. Constant life in the Bald Mountains, a natural connection with nature for Princess Marya and the old prince. Comprehension of the eternity of nature by Prince Andrey (Austerlitz sky, oak). 5. Attitude towards the people. The perception of the nationality is more on an emotional level (hunting scene, uncle's song, Natasha's dance). Reasonable Perception people's problems: transformation in Bogucharovo, aimed at improving the lives of peasants. 6. Patriotism. Attitude to war. Sincere patriotism, pain for one's Motherland. Nicholas fights in the war; Petya, still just a boy, goes to war in 1812 with the consent of his parents and dies in the first battle. Natasha demands that the carts be given to the wounded. Rostovs are leaving their homes, like many residents. Deep patriotism of the prince and children. Andrey fights in the war in 1805-1807. In 1812 he left the headquarters; the soldiers called him “our prince.” Old Bolkonsky goes to defend his lands. Princess Marya refuses French patronage.

5 slide

Slide description:

7. Disadvantages Kindness is sometimes external (Sonia's story). Sometimes Nicholas's cruelty towards the peasants. The impracticality and extravagance of Father Rostov. The difficult character of the old prince. 8. The author’s attitude towards the heroines Natasha is Tolstoy’s favorite heroine, the ideal of a woman embodied in the family. Princess Marya is one of the favorite heroines, she can also be a good keeper of the hearth. 9. The author's attitude towards families. Autobiographical. The author loves this family, portraying it realistically but attractively. Many characters carry autobiographical traits: Nikolai Rostov - traits of the writer's father, Natasha - relatives of the writer's wife. The author loves this family, although the cruelty of their upbringing is not always attractive. Autobiographical traits in Nikolai Andreevich - maternal grandfather - and in Marya - traits of his mother, the feeling that his mother was just like that. Andrei Bolkonsky embodied the thoughts of Tolstoy himself

“War and Peace” is a Russian national epic, which is reflected national character of the Russian people at the moment when their historical fate was being decided. L.N. Tolstoy worked on the novel for almost six years: from 1863 to 1869. From the very beginning of work on the work, the writer’s attention was attracted not only historical events, but also private family life.

For L.N. Tolstoy himself, one of his main values ​​was family. The family in which he grew up, without which we would not have known Tolstoy the writer, the family he created

Myself. Family as a school of life and family as an institution. In life, family is a way of reproduction and the best remedy educate in a person moral principles, develop his talents. Family is the transfer of experience of generations, the uniqueness of a nation.

“Family thought” was first seriously touched upon by Tolstoy in “Childhood.” He depicts his family, its climate, the relationship between children and parents and the influence of the family atmosphere on himself. The apogee of the development of “family thought” in Tolstoy’s work was the novel “Anna Karenina”. In the novel “War and Peace” through the prism of “ family thought» is being considered Patriotic War 1812

“War and Peace” describes the life of several noble families: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys and the Kuragins.

The Bolkonskys and Rostovs are families with whom Tolstoy sympathizes. From them come Marya and Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha - the writer’s favorite characters. The members of these families were subjected to three main tests by the writer: social life, love, war. Families are shown not in isolation from the surrounding world, but in close contact with it and contacts with each other. It is in this way that Tolstoy reveals the “family thought.”

In the Rostov family, it was customary not to be afraid to express their feelings: cry, fall in love. It was one of the most hospitable families in Moscow. In addition to their children, they raised Boris and Sonya. The atmosphere in the house was universal love and trust. Love binds all family members. It manifests itself in sensitivity, attention, and closeness. With the Rostovs, everything is sincere, it comes from the heart. Cordiality, hospitality, hospitality reign in this family, and the traditions and customs of Russian life are preserved. Only from such a family can children like Nikolai and Natasha come out. These are people with a strong intuitive beginning, but do not carry any spiritual values. That is why they are drawn to the Bolkonsky family, who carry moral and spiritual values.

The Bolkonsky family has a spartan atmosphere. It’s not customary to cry here, they don’t like guests here, everything here is subordinated to reason. This is an old aristocratic family. In addition to blood ties, the members of this family are also connected by spiritual closeness. Nikolai Andreevich, loving his daughter, forces her to teach natural Sciences, believing that she is completely bad. However, the princess’s spiritual foundations prevail. The happiness given to her at the end of the novel is a reward for suffering. Prince Andrey is the image of a real man: strong-willed, strong, practical, educated, moderately sensitive.

These two families form, as it were, two halves, and it is quite natural that they are attracted to each other, and they form harmonious couples. The spiritual and practical are reunited in the pair Nikolai - Princess Marya. The same thing should have happened between Prince Andrei and Natasha, but Bolkonsky’s death prevents this.

Tolstoy contrasts the Rostov and Bolkonsky family with the Kuragin family. Kuragins are a symbol of a degraded family, a family in which material interests are placed above spiritual ones. The members of this family appear before us in all their insignificance, vulgarity, callousness, and greed. Kuragins live artificial life, they are selfishly occupied with everyday interests. The family is devoid of spirituality. For Helen and Anatole, the main thing in life is the satisfaction of their base desires. They are completely disconnected from folk life, live in a brilliant but cold world, where all feelings are perverted. Prince Vasily is so carried away by secular affairs that he has lost all human essence. According to Tolstoy, this family has no right to exist, almost all of its members die. The family of Vera and Berg can be compared with the Kuragins. Their whole life consists of imitating others. Their motto is “like others.” This family will be given children, but they will certainly be moral monsters.

The couple Natasha Rostova - Pierre Bezukhov becomes the ideal of a harmonious family. All of Pierre’s spiritual quests and all of Natasha’s tireless energy went towards creating a strong and reliable family. It is safe to say that their children will grow up healthy physically and morally.

By showing three families most fully in the novel, Tolstoy makes it clear to the reader that the future belongs to families such as the Rostov and Bolkonsky families, who embody sincerity of feelings and high spirituality.