Artistic features of the novel “War and Peace” by L. N.

Artistic features of the novel "War and Peace"

1. Mastery of composition. The composition of the novel is striking in its complexity and harmony. The novel develops many plot lines. These storylines often intersect and intertwine. Tolstoy traces the fates of individual heroes (Dolokhov, Denisov, Julie Karagina) and entire families (Rostov, Bolkonsky, Kuragin).

The complex interweaving of human relationships, the complex feelings of people, their personal, family, and social lives are revealed on the pages of the novel along with the depiction of great historical events. A person is somehow captured by these events.

A distinctive feature of the composition of “War and Peace” is that the writer constantly transfers the action from one place to another, moves from events associated with one line to events associated with another line, from private destinies to historical paintings. Now we are in the Bolkonsky estate, now in Moscow, in the Rostov house, now in the St. Petersburg social salon, now at the theater of military operations.

This transfer of actions is far from accidental and is determined by the author’s intention. Due to the fact that the reader sees different events taking place simultaneously in different areas, he compares and contrasts them and thus understands their true meaning more deeply. Life appears before us in all its fullness and diversity.

In order to more sharply highlight the features of certain events and characters, the writer often resorts to the method of contrast. This is expressed in the very title of the novel “War and Peace”, and in the system of images, and in the arrangement of the chapters.

Tolstoy contrasts the corrupt life of the St. Petersburg aristocracy with the life of the people. The contrast is contained in the depiction of individual heroes (Natasha Rostova and Helen Bezukhova, Andrei Bolkonsky and Anatol Kuragin, Kutuzov and Napoleon), and in the description of historical events (Battle of Austerlitz - Battle of Borodino).

2. Psychological analysis. In the novel we find the deepest psychological analysis, manifested in the author’s narration, in the transmission of the characters’ internal monologues, in “eavesdropping on thoughts.” Psychologism also has an effect in dreams as a form of reproducing mental experiences and subconscious processes. One of the psychologists discovered in the novel 85 shades of eye expression and 97 shades of a human smile, which helped the writer reveal the variety of emotional states of the characters. Such attention to the slightest nuances of the movement of the human soul became a real discovery of L.N. Tolstoy and was called the method of disclosure "dialectics of the soul".

3. Portraits of heroes. Psychological characteristics are provided by portraits of heroes, whose function is to give a visible image of a person. The peculiarity of the portrait characteristics of the characters in the novel is that it is usually woven from details, one of which is persistently repeated (the radiant eyes of Princess Marya, Helen’s smile, which is the same for everyone, Lisa Bolkonskaya’s short lip with a mustache, etc.)

4. Landscape descriptions. An equally important role is played by landscape descriptions, which help to understand the situation in which the hero lives and acts (the Rostov hunting scene), his state and train of thoughts (the sky of Austerlitz), the nature of his experiences (Prince Andrei’s double meeting with the oak tree), the emotional world of the hero (moonlit night in Otradnoye). Tolstoy's pictures of nature are given not in themselves, but in the perception of his characters.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the novel - the epic "War and Peace", which remains a great work of Russian classical literature for all times.

Artistic features. The grandiose artistic canvas of the epic novel incorporates a wide variety of artistic techniques and means. The principle of contrast becomes one of the comprehensive ones: it permeates all levels of the work, starting with the title, the arrangement of chapters and ending with individual episodes and scenes. Thus, Tolstoy contrasts the anti-people life of the St. Petersburg aristocracy with its hypocrisy and falsehood with people's Russia with its simplicity and naturalness. The system of images is also built on the principle of contrast (Natasha Rostova - Helen Bezukhova, Princess Marya - Julie Karagina, Andrei Bolkonsky - Anatol Kuragin, etc.). The images of historical figures who are in the center of the author’s attention - Kutuzov and Napoleon - are also contrasting, as are the human qualities that are associated with each of them and determine the characteristic features of a whole group of images (“predatory” and “meek” types of people). Entire scenes and episodes are built on the principle of contrast: thus the scene of the Battle of Austerlitz is contrasted with the Battle of Borodino, the reception in the Scherer salon is contrasted with the name day in the Rostov house, etc.

The features of the narrative in the novel also correlate with the principle of contrast. It is based on the idea of ​​the author’s original knowledge of truth, the highest truth, which leads to a collision of the author’s knowledge and the painful search for his favorite heroes. This allows the author, from a position of higher knowledge, to plan and explain the events and characters depicted. On the other hand, the principle of continuity of plot development leads to the fact that often the presentation on behalf of the author fades into the background, giving way to a stage episode. The literary fabric of the novel also includes the author's polemical arguments, historical references, historical and philosophical digressions, etc., which have the hero's thought as their starting point. Finally, at times the author’s “I” is dispersed in the characters - primarily “beloved” by the writer Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky, for example, when before the Battle of Borodino, Prince Andrei expresses his thoughts about the war, the author’s voice is clearly woven into them.

But, of course, the most important principle of depicting heroes is a special method of psychological analysis, called N.G. Chernyshevsky “dialectics of the soul”. It consists in the fact that the writer is not limited to depicting the results of psychological analysis, he is interested in the very process of the origin and subsequent formation of thoughts, feelings, moods, sensations of a person, their interaction, the development of one from the other, which becomes the object of detailed, detailed reproduction. Tolstoy needs “dialectics of the soul” in order to reveal the spiritual and moral capabilities of the individual in their development, as well as to make it possible to see with one’s own eyes the interconnection of internal, mental processes and the highest spiritual source, located outside of man and existing independently of him. This “dialectic of the soul” can be traced in the depiction of all Tolstoy’s “favorite” heroes - Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Natasha Rostova, Princess Marya. That is why on the pages of the novel an internal monologue is so often heard, in which the struggle of opposing principles in the hero’s soul is felt: his speech becomes confused, incorrect, phrases are often abrupt, the emotional tone is heightened and tense. Such, for example, is the internal monologue of Prince Andrei when he lies wounded on the field of Austerlitz: the duality of his consciousness, in which old ambitious aspirations and a new idea of ​​a higher power that gives peace and tranquility collide, arises even at the lexical-syntactical level (“we fled , shouted, fought" - "high, endless sky", "quiet, solemn"). Such a large role of internal monologue in revealing the “dialectics of the soul” is explained by the fact that here, to a greater extent than in actions and dialogues, hidden intentions and secrets of the soul are revealed.

But perhaps the psychological portrait plays an equally important role in the novel. For Tolstoy, it is dynamic, since it must reveal as much as possible the connections between a person’s inner world and its external manifestations. That is why the writer so often focuses on the eyes - after all, they are the “mirror of the soul.” Researchers have calculated that in War and Peace Tolstoy uses 85 different shades of eye expression. In number, this can only be compared with the variety of shades of a smile, which helps to reveal the emotional state of the hero. It should also be noted that Tolstoy does not provide a complete portrait of the hero in the exhibition, as was customary in the Russian classical novel. His portrait is dispersed across various temporal and spatial layers, since it is inseparable from the development of character.

There are two main types of portraits in the novel, corresponding to the two main types of heroes. Drawing portraits of his favorite characters, the writer uses repeating details: Natasha’s sparkling eyes and big mouth, the heavy gait and radiant eyes of Princess Marya. Repeating themselves, such details are intended to highlight the variability of the character of the hero, who is in constant movement and development. Another thing is mask portraits: they are static and always unchanged, just as the heroes whom these portraits depict (Helen, Anatole, Berg, Scherer, etc.) are also unchanged. They also contain repeating details, for example, Helen’s luxurious shoulders and her frozen “monotonously beautiful” smile, but such details are intended to demonstrate the immobility of the mask, which hides spiritual emptiness and moral ugliness behind external attractiveness. It is not for nothing that Tolstoy does not draw Helen’s eyes at all, although, apparently, they are also beautiful, but they do not glow with thought and feeling, like Natasha’s eyes, infinitely varied, in which all the richness of her spiritual world is expressed.

According to Tolstoy, a person’s spiritual beauty is also combined with his attitude towards nature. That is why the landscape in the novel also becomes psychological: it is addressed to a person, revealing to him the beauty of the world and highlighting the deep meaning of the events taking place. It is no coincidence that Helen, Julie or Anna Pavlovna Scherer never appear in the lap of nature - they are alien to natural life and cannot perceive it in all its beauty and diversity. But Natasha is an organic part of nature, and it’s not for nothing that the idea of ​​flying can come to her mind - something that so amazed Andrei in the night conversation he accidentally overheard between Natasha and Sonya in Otradnoye.

But often Tolstoy’s pictures of nature become symbolic, expressing some higher truth that is revealed to man precisely through the natural principle. This is the picture of the high sky above the Field of Austerlitz, the same symbol is the oak tree that Prince Andrei sees on the road to Otradnoye. Nature in Tolstoy’s novel not only empathizes with the characters, but also introduces an eternal, pacifying principle into the general flow of life. As an expression of the highest moral truth, the picture of the Borodino field, washed after a bloody battle with cleansing rain, appears. In the pictures of Russian nature, painted in the scene of a hunt with a mad jump across an autumn field or in the scene of a conversation between Andrei and Pierre on a ferry under the measured sound of flowing water, as in many others, what the writer defines as the original Russian principle is most fully expressed, “ people's thought”, combining the grandiose canvas of the epic novel “War and Peace” into a single artistic whole. As Turgenev accurately said about it, this is “a great work of a great writer - and this is genuine Russia.”

Artistic features of "War and Peace"

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Report

Genre features of the novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy

Iva Zyuzina

III year, Ph.D. 4636

Russian philology

The novel "War and Peace" is a work of large volume. It covers 16 years (from 1805 to 1821) of the life of Russia and more than five hundred different heroes. Among them there are real characters in the historical events described, fictional characters and many people to whom Tolstoy does not even give names, for example, “the general who ordered”, “the officer who did not arrive.” In this way, the writer wanted to show that the movement of history occurs not under the influence of any specific individuals, but thanks to all participants in the events. To combine such a huge material into one work, the author created a genre that had not been used by any writer before, which he called an epic novel. This is one of the few works in world literature of the 19th century to which the name epic novel is rightfully proposed. Events of a large historical scale, general life, not private life, form the basis of its content, the historical process is revealed in it, an unusually wide coverage of Russian life in all its layers has been achieved, and as a result of this, the number of characters, in particular characters from the people's environment, is so large.

The novel describes real historical events: the Battle of Austerlitz, Shengraben, Borodino, the conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit, the capture of Smolensk, the surrender of Moscow, partisan warfare and others, in which real historical figures manifest themselves. Historical events in the novel also play a compositional role. Since the Battle of Borodino largely determined the outcome of the War of 1812, 20 chapters are devoted to its description, it is the culminating center of the novel. The work contained pictures of battle, giving way to images of the world as the complete opposite of war, peace as the existence of a community of many, many people, as well as nature, that is, everything that surrounds a person in space and time. Disputes, misunderstandings, hidden and overt conflicts, fear, hostility, love... All this is real, living, sincere, like the heroes of a literary work themselves.

The breadth of coverage of the Russian nation in the work is amazing: noble estates, aristocratic metropolitan salons, village holidays and diplomatic receptions, the greatest battles and pictures of peaceful life, emperors, peasants, dignitaries, landowners, merchants, soldiers, generals. We meet more than 500 characters on the pages of the novel. All of them, especially the positive heroes, are in constant search. Tolstoy's favorite heroes are not flawless, but they strive for improvement, search for the meaning of life, tranquility for them is tantamount to spiritual death. But the path to truth and righteousness is difficult and thorny. The characters created by Tolstoy reflect the moral and philosophical research of the author of the novel himself. The novel tells about the events taking place during three stages of Russia's struggle with Bonapartist France. Volume 1 describes the events of 1805, when Russia, in alliance with Austria, waged a war on its territory with France. In the 2nd volume of 1806-1807, when Russian troops were in Prussia. The 3rd and 4th volumes are devoted to a broad depiction of the Patriotic War of 1812, which Russia waged on its native soil. In the epilogue, the action takes place in 1820.

The most complex artistic, historical and philosophical fabric of the novel is woven from everyday life and historical paintings, from the depiction of epoch-making events in the life of the people and the culminating moments of the life of private individuals - great and unknown, real and fictional; from the speech of the narrator and the passionate monologues of the author himself, who seemed to come to the fore and remove his heroes, stopping the action of the novel in order to talk about something most important with the reader, sharply challenge the generally accepted point of view of professional historians, and justify his principles.

The very first and general theme of any epic is war and peace. The title is highly consistent with the “spirit of the epic” that Tolstoy’s book is universally recognized to embody. What the theme and main event of the book tells about is war and peace, and in the composition the main division is carried out into chapters into “peaceful” and “military”, replacing each other. At the same time, the meaning of the title seems to be doubled - namely, the meaning of the second concept: peace. Here it is no longer so unambiguous and simple - the question arises in what sense the word “peace” is given, for the text of the book provides the basis for this. After all, this word not only appears in the title, but also permeates the entire text of the novel, covers a wide range of content and forms a whole network of meanings. “The world” in the text of Tolstoy’s novel, in its essence, is untranslatable. This is not only the “peace” that is opposite to war, a sign of silence, peace and harmony, but also the “peace” that is in the sense of the cosmic meaning - “the whole world” or “all people”.

In the “world” the author gives the specific meaning of worldly life, all the limitlessness of connections in human life with its diversity of relationships, opinions, events, goals comprehensible or not, in which it is necessary to navigate and make decisions. This life “in the world,” which is an image of the “disorder of the free world,” is contrasted with another meaning of “world” in Tolstoy’s novel. In the context of the novel, another meaning of “world” is the antipode of the word “earth”, which is already close in meaning to the word “sky” and reassembles with the concepts of God, faith and death. The world is not just the general connection of human life, which more than once seemed to the characters in Tolstoy’s books as chaos, a game of chance, but it is also a special purposeful connection, a harmonious whole, the “kingdom of truth.” Within the boundaries of the original text, this difference is conveyed by the different spellings of a specific word - “mir” and “mir”, where the concept of “peace” appears in places where it is clearly opposed to war, and “mir” is used to mean “the whole world / all people”.

There are many attempts to study the basic composition of the novel, fundamentally different in their approach. At first, researchers saw their task as finding in the novel the most important stages of the development of action, as they should be according to generally accepted concepts of composition - beginning, climax, denouement. Among the author's works on this topic, T.L. Motyleva can be noted, who clarifies in her research that despite the absence of a plot in the generally accepted sense of the word - the initial event that would determine the further development of the action, even from the first pages of the work there is a brewing conflict , which lies at the heart of the epic. Namely: the contradiction and brewing war between the Russian state and Napoleonic army. The mainspring of the action is the specific deepening and development of this storyline; the culmination of the narrative can be considered the Battle of Borodino, and the denouement is the expulsion of Napoleon from Russia. In this case, the place of the denouement itself is quite unusual - since the action of the novel does not stop after it. This traditional view of the composition of the novel, according to other researchers, is too general a scheme that does not cover the completeness and logic of the novel’s plot lines, nor does it subordinate many of the life processes depicted in the book.

Another attempt to interpret the composition of the novel can be noted in the works of B. Bursov, who decides to move away from the traditional theoretical and literary scheme. He adheres to the theory of individual compositional centers of “War and Peace”, which are the most significant moments of a historical event in it, but taken separately. In the first volume, such a center, according to Bursov, is the Battle of Austerlitz, and in the third - Borodino. What does the significance of the Battle of Borodino have to do with this, not only as the compositional center of the third volume, but also of the entire work as a whole.

A completely different principle for considering the features of the novel’s composition is outlined in A. Saburov’s monograph. The culmination of the work is recognized as the episode of the Battle of Borodino, but the leading role in this development is occupied by its so-called “external structure”. This development examines the relationship in the novel between fact and fiction, war and peace, the author’s reasoning and the narrative part, the scenic and descriptive elements. As a result, this work examines the features of the genre composition of the novel separately from the writer’s specific views on life, from the features of his worldview. A method that was not accepted by another part of the researchers, who emphasized in their developments precisely the moral and philosophical ideas of the author and Reeve. The development was accepted. describes the features of the novel's novel composition separately from the writer's specific views on life, a specific novel (V. Selinov, S. Leushev).

Of course, without taking into account the philosophical basis of the novel, it is impossible to understand the methods of its construction. Here everything is determined by the writer’s desire to artistically substantiate his view of people, life, and society. The author's fiction occupies no less place in the novel than reliable material in importance, and also contains many philosophical premises in understanding not only military actions, but also in the everyday civil and everyday life of people. Particular attention is paid to the role of the masses in history, the ethical ideas of the best and thinking people from the leading families of the nobility, the material and careerist motives of the ruling class, problems of love, marriage and family.

The fiction in the novel also expands from the writer’s intentions, in addition to the historical event, to show in its entirety the lives of people, which are not always directly connected with the war that took place. According to the writer himself, reflected in the draft version of the preface, he distinguishes his task from the task of a historian: “The historian and the artist, describing a historical era, have two completely different subjects. Just as a historian will be wrong if he tries to present a historical person in all his integrity, in all the complexity of his relationships to all aspects of life, and thereby unwittingly misses and obscures his main task - to indicate the person’s participation in a historical event, then the artist will not fulfill his task , understanding a person the way a historian would, always presenting him in a historical meaning” (13.57). These exact words of the author himself show that he considers it his duty to touch on all aspects of life and, of course, illuminate them from a philosophical point of view. The writer set the task of creating an epic, i.e. as it seems to him, a complete picture of the life of society at the beginning of the century with all types of life and customs of serf Russia. Mainly, this intention explains the exceptional completeness of the description of everyday phenomena of life - the birth and death of a person, the experiences of lovers, hunting, a card game, a duel, illness, disobedience of peasants to their mistress, the experiences of a soldier's mother, the poisoning of a lover, the religious feelings of a person - in a word, everything that there lived a man then. Throughout the reading of the entire novel, one can see how the writer tries to fully embrace the life of the era, describe the life of humanity at a certain historical stage, show the sequence of events and how exactly people lived then.

The author assigns two equal halves a place in the novel, both military actions and events of civil life. In this regard, the alternation of military and everyday scenes is given in approximately equal parts; it is in balance in relation to the whole volume of the novel. Interrupting descriptions of military operations, the narrative describes the development of almost all lines of the family chronicle - the lives of the Kuragins, Bolkonskys, Bezukhovs, Rostovs. In the work on the first half of the novel, the description of all families occurs as a rule - for example, after the Battle of Shengraben, in connection with the development of the plot, the Kuragins, Pierre Bezukhov and Bolkonskys are shown. There are no mentions of any events in the Rostov family life, but the author mentions them, observing the accepted procedure for keeping them in the field of view of the narrative.

In the author’s mind, the two halves of the novel – military-historical and civil – correspond to the meaning of the title - “War and Peace” and serve as its clarification, i.e. peace here is again thought of not only as a state opposite to war, but also as the everyday civil, non-military life of people. In the comparison of one and the other, however, there are also semantic shades that speak of the impact of war on the world, people, their views, feelings and behavior.

The combination of a family chronicle with the events of the people's war represents the main core of the development of action in the novel. In a skillful interweaving of two-sided action, the author, with vital observation, traces the private destinies of people, finding out how people of different positions, views and characters withstood the great test and behaved, what influence the crucial historical moment had on them.

In accordance with this, the novel begins with a show of the world, and then moves on to pictures of war. In this way, the reader gets to know the main characters before they become participants in the war. And this already affects the very perception of the description of war as a phenomenon - it is no longer just a war, but a war with the participation of familiar faces who have their own lives, thoughts and aspirations.

Genre

Work of Tolstoy connects features in myself novel And epics.

As you know, the novel is based on the fate before the whole individual, and an epic is a work in which fate is interpreted a whole people. Tolstoy combined both principles in his work - both epic and novel.

The main thing in Tolstoy's work is heroic theme of the people. It is she who defines the meaning of “War and Peace” as epics. Recreation of grandiose historical events, pictures of great battles, especially the Battle of Borodino, majestic landscape, extensive historical and philosophical digressions of the author reveal the features of “War and Peace” as epics.

"War and Peace" carries traditions works of ancient Russian literature, in particular military story. The motive of a nationwide feat in the name of saving the Russian land brings Tolstoy's work closer to The Tale of Igor's Campaign.

Moscow theme also appears in War and Peace as epic theme. Tolstoy is moving closer to the people's consciousness in relation to Moscow as the heart of Russia.

At the same time, it is important for Tolstoy the novelist to comprehend formation and development of the personalities of individual characters in their independent existence.

Originality"War and Peace" as a novel is that it has not one or two main characters, but many heroes connected by personal destinies.

"War and Peace" has features of a historical novel. Here we talk about real historical events and persons.

The uniqueness of “War and Peace” lies in the fact that the paintings from the era of the Napoleonic wars are not the background of the narrative, but an independent element of the composition. Let us remember the significance of the images of Kutuzov, Bagration, Napoleon, Alexander I in Tolstoy’s work.

"War and Peace" also has features of a family novel. Here are the stories family stories Rostov, Bolkonsky, Kuragin.

It's novel philosophical, in which Tolstoy comprehends the most general issues(life and death, the meaning of human existence, philosophy of history).

This and psychological a novel marked by the writer’s close attention to the inner world of the characters.

War and Peace as a novel and War and Peace as an epic are closely related. The general course of the narrative in Tolstoy's work is determined by the development of historical events. According to the precise observation of A.A. Saburov, the culmination of a historical narrative- a story about the heroic feat of the people in the War of 1812 - is at the same time the decisive moment in the interweaving of the destinies of individual heroes in their highest development.

Composition

Narration – the most important element of the composition"War and Peace". In the novel, in accordance with the classification proposed by A.A. Saburov, it has, many varieties; this, in particular, is a historical and documentary narrative, a narrative based on artistic fiction, a narrative that recreates the processes of the mental life of the heroes; Special mention should be made here of such forms of storytelling as epistolary(for example, correspondence between Marya Bolkonskaya and Julie Karagina) and diary(diary of Pierre Bezukhov, diary of Countess Marya Rostova) varieties of narration.

In addition to the narrative, the most important elements of the composition of “War and Peace” are the author’s descriptions And reasoning.

Stage episode – the main element of the composition "War and Peace". It consists of stage dialogue And author's remarks. Stage episodes in their sequence form narrative flow. Between the stage episodes there are other compositional elements - the author's narration, as well as descriptions and reasoning.

In "War and Peace" many storylines.

Two main storylines are given in the very title of the novel. The first part of the first volume deals mainly with the theme of peace. It serves as an exposition of the main plot lines of the work. Here pictures are drawn of the life of the social circles to which the most important heroes belong. Tolstoy depicts the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, introduces the reader to Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov, shows the life of Moscow, the Rostov family, the dying Count Bezukhov, then takes the reader to Bald Mountains. The first transition from peace to war is marked by the line between the first and second parts of the first volume of the novel. In the second part of the first volume, the heroic theme of the people is outlined, which will be developed in the third and fourth volumes.

The second volume is almost entirely devoted to peace, the third volume to war. Starting from the third volume, the themes of war and peace are constantly intertwined. The personal lives of the heroes are included in the flow of events of 1812. In the fourth volume, the theme of war wanes, the theme of peace begins to dominate again.

Within the two main lines, the line of war and the line of peace, the novel highlights private plot and thematic lines. Let's call some of them. This is the topic Petersburg nobility, Anna Pavlovna Sherer's salon, circle of Prince Vasily Kuragin and Helen, circle of Anatoly Kuragin and Dolokhov. These are storylines related to destinies Andrey Bolkonsky And Pierre Bezukhov. This Rostov family line.

Individual storylines reflect destinies Natasha Rostova And Nikolai Rostov. Let's also name the storyline associated with life in Bald Mountains, with the story of the old Prince Bolkonsky, with the fate of Princess Marya. In addition, we note lines of Kutuzov and Bagration, Napoleon and the French, and Freemasonry theme.

Transition from one storyline to another is carried out, as a rule, according to principle of antithesis. Antithesis – the most important compositional device in "War and Peace".

It becomes important in Tolstoy's novel scenery. Tolstoy's landscape is always an element of a large and integral picture of life.

An important place in the composition of “War and Peace” is occupied by author's digressions - historical, journalistic, philosophical. Thus, at the beginning of the third volume, Tolstoy considers the question of the role of the individual in history. The author’s thoughts before describing the Battle of Borodino play an important role. At the beginning of the third part of the fourth volume, a digression on the uniqueness of guerrilla warfare is of particular interest. A significant part of the epilogue is occupied by the author's philosophical digressions. Author's digressions enhance the epic start"War and Peace".

“Dialectics of the soul” (principles and means of psychological analysis)

The term “dialectics of the soul” was introduced into Russian criticism by N.G. Chernyshevsky. In a review of Tolstoy’s early works, Chernyshevsky noted that the writer was most interested in “the mental process itself, its forms, its laws, dialectic of the soul, to express it in a definitive term.”

“Dialectics of the soul,” according to Chernyshevsky, is direct depiction of a “mental process”.

In addition, there is also a broader understanding of the “dialectics of the soul.”"Dialectics of the soul" is general principles and specific means of psychological analysis in the works of Tolstoy.

Let's look at some general principles"dialectics of the soul" in "War and Peace".

Tolstoy depicts The inner world of a person is in constant motion, in contradictory development.“People are rivers, man is a fluid substance,” wrote Tolstoy. This thesis can be illustrated using the example of the spiritual quest of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov. The characters are constantly looking for the meaning of life, their inner world is constantly changing. The depiction of the mental state of Andrei and Pierre is an important aspect of the “dialectics of the soul.”

Note also Tolstoy's interest in turning points, crisis moments in a person's spiritual life. The inner world of Tolstoy's heroes is often revealed precisely at such moments (Pierre in Torzhok, Andrei Bolkonsky under the sky of Austerlitz).

The most important feature of Tolstoy’s psychologism is close connection between external events and the inner life of the characters. Let us note, for example, the significance of events such as the birth of a child and the death of his wife for Andrei Bolkonsky. Let us remember the role of the War of 1812 in the spiritual life of the heroes.

Let us also note some specific means and techniques psychological analysis by Tolstoy.

The main means of psychological analysis in Tolstoy’s novel is internal monologue. Let's give examples.

After a break with his wife and a duel with Dolokhov, being in a difficult mental state, Pierre leaves Moscow and goes to St. Petersburg. Stopping at the postal station in Torzhok, the hero sadly reflects on his life: “What’s wrong? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live, and what am I? What is life, what is death? What force controls everything?

Having become fascinated by Anatoly Kuragin, Natasha is in a state of mental turmoil. "My God! I'm dead! - she said to herself. “How could I let this happen?”

After being seriously wounded, Andrei Bolkonsky reflects on his new view of the world. “Yes, I have discovered a new happiness, inalienable from a person,” he thought, lying in a dark, quiet hut and looking ahead with feverishly open, fixed eyes. “Happiness that is outside of material forces, outside of material external influences on a person, the happiness of one soul, the happiness of love!”

Sometimes the hero's internal monologue turns into "mindflow", that is a chain of memories and impressions that are logically unrelated to each other. For example, Tolstoy conveys the internal state of Nikolai Rostov during his first battle on the Enns River: “There is so much happiness in me and this sun alone, and here... groans, suffering, fear and this obscurity, this haste... Here again they shout something, and again everyone runs somewhere back, and I run with them, and here it is, here it is, death, above me, around me... A moment - and I will never see this sun, this water , this gorge."<...>“And the fear of death and stretchers, and the love of the sun and life - everything merged into one painful and disturbing impression.”

An important means of psychological analysis in Tolstoy is monologues And dialogues heroes. Communicating with each other, Tolstoy's heroes often share their innermost thoughts. For example, the words of Andrei Bolkonsky addressed to Pierre sometimes take on the character of a confession. At the beginning of the first volume, Andrei Bolkonsky explains to his friend why he is going to war: “For what? I don't know. That's how it should be. Besides, I’m going... I’m going because this life that I’m leading here, this life is not for me!”

Let's give another example. In a conversation with Andrei on the ferry, Pierre expresses his opinion about the meaning of life: “This is what I know, and I know correctly, that the pleasure of doing good is the only true happiness in life.”

Also becoming an important means of psychological analysis letters heroes. Let us take as an example the correspondence of Princess Marya Bolkonskaya with Julie Karagina. Princess Marya's letter reveals the spiritual world of a Christian girl, her sincere faith in God and selfless love for her neighbor. And on the contrary, the discussions about newfangled mystical teachings that we find in Julie’s letter seem empty and full of secular mannerisms.

An essential means of revealing the inner world of the hero can also be called diary. A striking example is the diary that Pierre kept during the period of his passion for Freemasonry. By the way, there is an autobiographical moment here: from 1847 until the end of his days, Tolstoy himself kept a diary, which became the writer’s creative laboratory. In Pierre's diary we find the hero's innermost thoughts about life and death. His emotional experiences, dreams, memories are reflected here. Note also diary Countess Marya Rostova, fragments of which are given at the end of the work.

Dream- a special means of psychological analysis in the novel “War and Peace”. Of particular note Pierre's two dreams. He saw one of them in Mozhaisk after the Battle of Borodino, another - in captivity. These dreams have a symbolic meaning.

The dream seen by Pierre in Mozhaisk conveys a sense of participation in “common life”, the consciousness of the need to subordinate one’s freedom to the Divine will. Pierre is seized by the idea of ​​connecting all that exists in the moral existence of man.

Another dream becomes an important moment in Pierre’s spiritual life - a dream about a globe, seen by the hero in captivity. In this dream, Pierre comes to the feeling that life is God. The meaning of human existence is to love life, to love God. But it is more difficult and more blessed to love this life in one’s own suffering. The image of a globe that appeared to Pierre in a dream symbolizes the unity of an individual person with the world and with God.

Note also Nikolenka Bolkonsky's dream at the end of the novel.

An important means of psychological analysis in the novel “War and Peace” is the image discrepancies between the hero’s internal state and the external manifestation of this state.

For example, Nikolai Rostov, having lost a huge amount of money at cards to Dolokhov, cheekily informs his father about this, although in his heart he feels like the last scoundrel.

Let's give another example. After breaking up with Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky talks to Pierre about politics, but in his heart he continues to experience this breakup. At the same time, Pierre feels that his friend’s thoughts are not at all about politics.

In his works, Tolstoy, as a rule, does not give detailed psychological portraits of the characters. Hence the special significance psychological details. Usually, this is a repeating detail.

Let's give examples. The radiant eyes of Princess Marya Bolkonskaya reflect the depth of her faith in God and selfless love for her neighbor. Dolokhov’s cold gaze testifies to the hero’s selfishness and cruelty. Helen Kuragina’s bare shoulders are a detail that emphasizes the heroine’s lack of spirituality despite her external beauty.

Often the hero’s internal state is conveyed through description of nature.

For example, the sky of Austerlitz is a symbol of eternity, against the background of which the vanity of his dreams of glory becomes clear to Andrei Bolkonsky.

Two meetings with an old oak tree convey Andrei's state of mind before and after his first meeting with Natasha Rostova. Andrei Bolkonsky, looking at the old and gnarled oak tree, sadly thinks about his lost youth, about the meaninglessness of the present.

In Otradnoye, the hero involuntarily overheard Natasha’s night conversation with Sonya, imbued with the joy of life, the optimism emanating from Natasha. On the way home, Prince Andrei is overcome with a feeling of joy at the sight of a green old oak tree. In the hero's soul, faith in the possibility of earthly happiness is again revived.

Let's draw conclusions. Tolstoy appears in the novel “War and Peace” as a writer-psychologist. The depiction of a person’s inner world in constant movement, contradictory development, interest in turning points, crisis moments in a person’s spiritual life, the close connection of external events with the inner life of characters are the most important principles of the “dialectics of the soul.”

Tolstoy uses in his work such means of psychological analysis as internal monologue, confessional monologue, dialogue, letters, dreams, and diary entries. The writer depicts the discrepancy between the hero’s internal state and the external manifestation of this state, conveys the movements of the hero’s soul through descriptions of nature. A recurring detail plays an important role in the psychological characteristics of the characters.

Questions and tasks

1. Where and when was Leo Tolstoy born? To what class did he belong? Tell us about the writer’s childhood, his upbringing and education. The works of which philosopher were of particular interest to the future writer? What idea of ​​this philosopher was close to the young Tolstoy? What role did his diary play in Tolstoy’s life and work? What period of his life was he in? Tell us about Tolstoy's participation in the Caucasian War and in the defense of Sevastopol. In what year and in what magazine was the first story from Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy published? What was it called? Which side of Tolstoy's writing talent was evident already in his first story? Name two other works from this trilogy. Which works of Tolstoy were dedicated to the defense of Sevastopol? What theme becomes the main one in the Sevastopol essays and then one of the leading ones in the novel “War and Peace”? What themes are conceptualized by the writer in the novel “Family Happiness” and in the story “Cossacks”? What significance did these themes have in Tolstoy’s subsequent work? What major work did Tolstoy create in the 1860s and what was its main idea? How is this idea conceptualized in the novel Anna Karenina, Tolstoy’s central work of the 1870s? What was the turning point that occurred in Tolstoy’s worldview at the end of the 1870s? What were the most significant works written by Tolstoy after the turning point?

2. What is unique about Tolstoy’s understanding of the problems of his contemporary era in War and Peace? Outline the main themes of the novel. What “worlds” did the writer recreate in his work? Formulate Tolstoy’s main ideas embodied in “War and Peace” and comment on them. Why doesn’t the idea of ​​the natural existence of man become an absolute moral ideal for Tolstoy? How is the idea of ​​spiritual unity of Russian people interpreted in the novel? What is the difference between Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in understanding this idea?

3. What is unique about the embodiment of “folk thought” in the novel “War and Peace” in comparison with the works about the Russian people by other writers - Tolstoy’s contemporaries? What did the writer understand by the word “people”? What facets of this concept are revealed in War and Peace? How is “folk thought” related to the genre of the work? What aspects of “folk thought” does Tolstoy comprehend in his novel?

4. How did Tolstoy’s fatalism manifest itself in understanding historical events? How, in what words does the writer formulate his understanding of the role of the individual in history? What criterion does Tolstoy introduce in assessing historical figures? What episodes describing Kutuzov and Napoleon reveal the author’s position in relation to these individuals? What conclusions does Tolstoy make about Kutuzov and Napoleon?

5. What is the point of Tolstoy contrasting the war of 1805-1807 with the war of 1812? How does the writer depict the Battles of Shengraben and Austerlitz? Name the most important episodes of these battles and comment on them.

6. Tell us about the episodes of the War of 1812 preceding the Battle of Borodino, and about their interpretation by Tolstoy. What is the meaning of the author’s digression immediately preceding the story about the Battle of Borodino? Tell us about Pierre Bezukhov’s impressions on the eve of the battle. What is the meaning of the two episodes describing Kutuzov and Napoleon before the battle - the prayer service to the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God and the posing of the French emperor in front of the portrait of his son? How does Tolstoy paint the morning landscape before the battle? Which episode in the depiction of the Battle of Borodino is central? How are the ordinary soldiers and Pierre described in this episode? How does Tolstoy depict Napoleon and Kutuzov during the battle? What pictures show the cruelty and unnaturalness of war? What conclusions does Tolstoy make about the results of the Battle of Borodino?

7. Why can the abandonment of Moscow be called a high epic theme? How does Tolstoy paint the autumn landscape at the moment of leaving the ancient capital? What symbolic meaning does the picture of the Moscow fire acquire?

8. What metaphor does Tolstoy use to define the partisan movement? How does Tolstoy depict its participants? Which side does Tolstoy show the people in the person of Tikhon Shcherbaty? In what episodes did the humanity of partisans and ordinary Russian soldiers appear in relation to the French?

9. What aspects of the Russian national character are revealed in the image of Platon Karataev? What constitutes the basis of this character’s worldview, his attitude towards others? How does the figure of Karataev correlate with the figure of Napoleon in the ideological content of the novel? What can you say about Plato's speech? What role did Plato play in the life of Pierre Bezukhov?

10. Name other representatives of the common people in the novel “War and Peace”, briefly describe them. What ideological load does the depiction of Bogucharov’s rebellion carry in Tolstoy’s work?

11. What layers of the Russian nobility does Tolstoy depict in the novel “War and Peace”? What characters does the writer use as an example to show the high society of St. Petersburg? What exactly does Tolstoy expose in representatives of high society? How does Tolstoy paint the “golden youth”? What is the ambiguity of the image of Dolokhov? In what way is Freemasonry shown in the novel? How do the highest administrative and diplomatic circles appear in Tolstoy's portrayal? Stop at the images of Speransky and Bilibin.

12. What is unique about the life of the Moscow nobility, the Rostov family and their entourage? How is the life of Muscovites fundamentally different from high-society life in St. Petersburg? What characters of Moscow residents does Tolstoy create in his novel?

13. Tell us about the life of the local nobility using the example of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys. What is unique about the estate life of each of these families?

14. What is the symbolic meaning of the image of the dying Count Bezukhov? What role does the image of Emperor Alexander I play in the novel? Which side does Tolstoy show it from?

15. What was the significance of “family thought” for Tolstoy? Why was the issue of family so important in the 1860s? What was Tolstoy's position regarding the family in the social debates of his time? What is unique about the family world of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys? What features do these two families have in common? What is unique about each of them? Why is it difficult to even call the Kuragins family? Why can the Kuragin family be considered escheat? How does Tolstoy portray young families in the novel? How is Tolstoy’s ideal of a woman-mother connected to the theme of family?

16. List the most significant female characters in the novel “War and Peace”. Tell us in detail about Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. What features bring these two heroines together and what differentiate them? How do the images of Vera Rostova, Sonya, and Julie Karagina relate to them? How does Tolstoy depict Ellen Bezukhova? Briefly describe Anna Pavlovna Sherer, Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, Andrei Bolkonsky's wife Lisa, as well as female characters from the people.

17. What does Tolstoy see as the meaning of the spiritual quest of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov? What are the heroes looking for in their lives? What are they aiming for? Name the main stages of the spiritual quest of Andrei and Pierre, comment on them. What spiritual values ​​does each of the characters acquire: Andrei - before his death, Pierre - in the epilogue of the novel? What role does the content of Nikolenka Bolkonsky’s dream at the end of the work play in understanding the results of the spiritual quest of the two heroes?

18. Tell us what role nature plays in War and Peace. How does Tolstoy’s thought about the natural existence of man relate to the theme of nature? Identify the main functions of descriptions of nature. Name and comment on several landscapes in the novel.

19. Analyze the genre uniqueness of “War and Peace”. How does the work combine the features of a novel and an epic? What other literary genres are we seeing here?

20. Consider the composition of “War and Peace.” What types of storytelling can you note here? What is the main compositional element of War and Peace? What does it consist of? Name and comment on the main plot and thematic lines of Tolstoy’s novel. What role do descriptions of nature and author’s digressions play in the work? Give examples of author's digressions of different content.

21. Which Russian critic first used the term “dialectics of the soul”? What did he mean by this? Is the concept of “dialectics of the soul” considered more broadly?

Name and comment on Tolstoy’s basic principles in depicting the inner world of man.

List the means of psychological analysis used by Tolstoy in War and Peace. Give examples from the text of the novel.

22. Make a detailed outline plan

21. Genre and stylistic originality of L. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace.”

Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828, Yasnaya Polyana-1910, Tambov province) is one of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, religious thinker, whose authoritative opinion caused the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900).

"War and Peace" (1863 – 1869).

The idea goes back to the novel “The Decembrists”.

Time range in the novel: 1805 – 1820s. The evolution of his plan: 1856 → 1825 → 1812 → 1805.

Tolstoy talks about the decisive role of the people in history. process. He set himself target: to reveal the character of an entire people in its rise, glory, and fall. Tolstoy poses a philosophical question: about freedom and will, about the flow of life itself. At first the novel was called “Three Times: 1856, 1825, 1812”, then “1805”, then “All’s Well That Ends Well”.

Tolstoy displayed 3 plans:1) social (war and not war); 2) psychological (war is hostility); 3) philosophical (good and evil).

“V and M” is a book of a complex genre, a cat cannot be defined in one word. The features of a novel and an epic merge here. The rapprochement of “V and M” with the epic also justifies the comparison with ancient Russian. lit, especially with works of the genre of military stories, and in particular with “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” There is a synthetic nature of the genre . Turgenev and Goncharov noted the epic nature of the novel. Modern researchers call it epic novel.

In terms of the breadth of life, the depth and power of revealing human characters, world literature knows nothing equal. “What is “War and Peace”?” Tolstoy wrote about the form of his work. “This is not a novel, even less a poem, even less a historical chronicle. “War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed." And in a conversation with Gorky he said: “Without false modesty, this is like the Iliad.”

Features of the epic in "War and Peace": in the center - the historical fate of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 12, the meaning of their heroic role and the image of a "holistic" existence.

Features of the novel:"War and Peace" tells about the private lives of people, showing specific individuals in their spiritual development.

Features of VIM: multiple plots and multiple characters, the widest production and time (1805-1820s), free combination of everyday details and battle scenes, art. image and author's digressions of the historical-fsf character, the meaning of the scene or character can be fully understood only in the context (z-n of conjugation), the universality of the coverage of Russian. Life, showing all the horrors of war through the perception of an amateur (Pierre) >>> a natural human view of what is happening, prototypical features of fictional characters >>> the juxtaposition of documentary and fiction.

Genre of epic novel- creation of Tolstoy. The ideological and artistic meaning of each scene and each character becomes clear only in their connection with the comprehensive content of the epic. The epic novel combines detailed pictures of Russian life, battle scenes, artistic narration and philosophical digressions. The content of the epic novel is based on events of large historical scale,“life is common, not private,” reflected in the destinies of individual people. Tolstoy achieved an unusually wide coverage of all layers of Russian life - hence the huge number of characters. The ideological and artistic core of the work is the history of the people and the path of the best representatives of the nobility to the people. The work was not written to recreate history; it is not a chronicle. The author created a book about the life of the nation, created an artistic, rather than historically reliable truth (much of the actual history of that time was not included in the book; in addition, real historical facts are distorted in order to confirm the main idea of ​​the novel, exaggeration of Kutuzov’s old age and passivity, a portrait and a number of actions Napoleon).

Historical and philosophical digressions, the author's reflections on the past, present and future are a necessary component of the genre structure of War and Peace. The composition of “War and Peace” is also subject to the requirements of the genre. The plot is based on historical events. Secondly, the significance of the destinies of families and individuals is revealed. The interest of Tolstoy the writer is focused not only on the depiction of individual human characters, but also on their connections with each other in moving and interconnected worlds. Not all of Tolstoy’s contemporaries realized the depth of the discovery he made in “War and Peace,” and in 1873 Tolstoy made an attempt to simplify the structure of the work and clear the book of reasoning, which, according to most researchers, caused serious damage to his work. It is believed that cumbersomeness, heaviness of periods (sentences), multifaceted composition, many plot lines, and an abundance of authorial digressions are integral and necessary features of War and Peace.

The artistic task itself - the epic coverage of enormous layers of historical life - required complexity, and not lightness and simplicity of form. The complicated syntactic structure of Tolstoy's prose is a tool of social and psychological analysis, an essential part of the style of the epic novel.

In part 2 of the epilogue, T sets out hisconcept of philosophy of history:

1. the East is made by the masses themselves;

2. people make history individually, not together;

3. people do history unconsciously.

The basis of historicism– Tolstoy’s understanding of the inextricable connection between times and generations >>> movement into the depths of time. “ViM” is the history of the people, and “not the thoughts of wonderful generals.” Here we find glorification of the heroism of the people, the heroism of ordinary defenders of the homeland.

Tolstoy's understanding of history is defined as fatalistic. He almost completely ignores the role of the individual in history. History moves by the masses, not by reason, but by the principle of the swarm. Fatum (predestination) makes its way through various kinds of accidents. Tolstoy denies historical determinism (Chernyshevsky) >>> the opposition between Napoleon and Kutuzov, contrary to the historical opposition between Napoleon and Alexander 1.

There is an antithesis in the novel Napoleon and Kutuzov. Tolstoy draws a portrait Napoleon slightly reduced. Napoleon plays in everything; he is an actor. Kutuzov does not consider himself the demiurge of history. It's simple everywhere. Tolstoy reduces his external greatness, but emphasizes his internal activity. Kutuzov- the external embodiment of the thoughts of the people. Napoleon and Kutuzov are two principles of existence: the beginning of good, faith (Kutuzov) and evil, the Antichrist spirit (Napoleon). Tolstoy puts forward, first of all, moral demands.

“War and Peace” = “War and the People.”

Ch. hero "V&M"- not an individual person, but a mass of persons, not “I”, but “we”.

The truth about the war is revealed in different ways:

Through details (confusion of Russian troops at Austerlitz)

Through mass psychology: generalization (the mood of the troops before Borodino), snatching one person from the masses and revealing the essence of his character in a few words.

The originality of the novel: history turns into a novel, and a novel into history. Historical figures who exist in reality (Kutuzov, Napoleon, Alexander, Bagration, Dokhturov) coexist and act together with fictional characters (Prince Andrei, Natasha and Petya Rostov, Pierre Bezukhov, Princess Marya). The subtle psychologist Tolstoy knew such an important feature of the human soul as the tendency to exaggerate the significance of events and tell others what they want to hear. So one of the most honest heroes of the novel, Nikolai Rostov, telling Berg about his first fight, began with the desire to tell everything as it was, but as the story progressed, “imperceptibly, involuntarily and inevitably for himself, he turned into a lie.” Based on this feature of the human soul, the writer put forward in the novel his subjective view of the historical events of that time, sometimes radically different from the views of researchers. Many historians reproached Tolstoy for the fact that the historical figures in the novel are far from reality, largely changed and implausible. But in his characters the writer was primarily interested in their moral character. Portraits of Bagration, Kutuzov, Napoleon are far from reality and are often quite conventional, far from what is known about them from historical documents, books and the words of contemporaries. So Napoleon in the work is an artistic image, and not a historical figure.

The entire novel is imbued not only with the idea of ​​debunking the personal heroism of historical figures, but also complete denial of the special role of the individual in history. It is no coincidence that the most important feats in the novel were performed not by real people, but by fictional characters such as Tushin and Timokhin. Tolstoy says that one person is not capable of radically influencing the course of historical events, and only by uniting, as the Russian people did in the Patriotic War of 1812, is it possible to become the creator of history.

Especially clearly expressed in the novel is the author’s complete denial of the art of war. Through the mouth of Andrei Bolkonsky, the author’s point of view on the necessity of waging war is expressed in the novel: “War is an event contrary to human reason and all human nature.” In describing the battles, the writer ridicules military symbols and traditions (banners are “sticks with pieces of cloth”) and highlights the moral factor of war. Using the example of several battles, Tolstoy shows that victory depends not on the number of troops, not on the disposition of the army, and not on the plans of the commanders-in-chief, but on the morale of ordinary soldiers.

But the main thing is how the views of the writer and historians differ- this is a different understanding of what victory in a war depends on. Tolstoy saw the key to success in the moral and psychological state of the army, the patriotism of the soldiers and their understanding of the meaning and goals of the war.

Features of the poetics of “War and Peace”

Epic character The work was formed on the basis of the image of critical historical events combined with the details of the life of one person. "People's Thought" in “War and Peace” was equally expressed in Tolstoy’s definition of the role of the people as the driving force of history, recognition of the importance of their spiritual state for deciding historical fate, and in the depiction of the entire people as a whole. At the same time, among the minor and episodic characters of the novel there are clearly defined characters and types with easily recognizable individuality.

Creating images of the main characters, Tolstoy does not deviate from the principles of the “dialectics of the soul,” giving these images in development, endowing them not only with a wealth of feelings, but also with depth of thought. The images of the heroes are significantly complemented by memorable portrait characteristics (at the same time, Tolstoy often emphasizes the role of some significant detail, for example, the radiant eyes of Princess Marya), individual behavior (swift gait and harshness of communication with those around Prince Bolkonsky; Natasha’s spontaneity and liveliness), originality of speech .

Language of the novel in its own way reflects a true picture of life of that era, contains large inclusions of text written by the author in German and, mainly, in French, which conveys the real atmosphere of life in secular society. However, the bulk of the novel is The Russian literary language, magnificent in its accuracy of presentation of thought, is enriched with living examples of folk (peasant and soldier) speech.

Communication with nature often helps the characters’ comprehension of their experiences, feelings, and their intense spiritual work. The view of the sky near Austerlitz and in Bogucharovo, the oak tree encountered on the way to Otradnoye, helps Prince Andrei, for example, more fully understand the changes taking place in his inner world. The hunt in which the Rostovs participate serves as a kind of prototype of future national unity in the face of danger.

Tolstoy's skill as a battle painter is enriched by the unique (going back to ancient traditions) use of images of nature: nature, together with people, seems to be participating in battles (fog that covered the Field of Austerlitz and hindered the Russian army; smoke and fog, the sun beating in the eyes, hindering the French at Borodino); Tolstoy entrusts his emotional assessment of the war to nature (the light rain dripping over the battlefield seems to say: “Enough, enough, people. Stop it... Come to your senses. What are you doing?”).

In relation to "War and Peace" it is often said about the principle of “conjugation”, i.e. the mutual conditionality of the alternation and sequence of episodes of the book, predetermining each other. Thus, Platon Karataev dies on the eve of the night when Pierre sees a dream that helps him understand Plato’s “truth,” but without understanding this “truth,” the hero’s further full life is impossible. Awakening from sleep occurs at the moment of the liberation of prisoners by Denisov's detachment, after which Pierre again joins the general stream of life.

Richness of content and features the poetics of the work could not but entail the destruction of the usual framework of the novel. Contemporaries did not immediately accept the unique form of Tolstoy’s new work. The author himself perfectly understood the genre nature of his work, calling it a “book” and thereby emphasizing the freedom of form and genetic connection with the epic experience of Russian and world literature.