Ekaterina Reutova - secondary school student secondary school No. 2 Yuryuzan Chelyabinsk region. The essay was written by her in the 10th grade. Teacher of Russian language and literature - Evgenia Viktorovna SOLOVOV.
Analysis of the ball scene in L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" (ch. XVI, part 3, vol. 2)
In order to live honestly, one must tear, get confused, fight, make mistakes, start and quit, and start again and quit again, and always struggle and lose. And peace is a spiritual meanness. (L.N. Tolstoy)
Man and his soul were the subject of creative research by L.N. Tolstoy. He closely studies the path that a person goes through, striving for the high and ideal, striving to know himself. The writer himself went through his life path through suffering, from the fall into sin (his diary entries testify to this). He showed this experience through the fate of his favorite heroes.
The heroes beloved and close to Tolstoy are people with a rich inner world, natural, capable of spiritual change, people who are looking for their own path in life. These include Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova. Each hero has his own path of spiritual quest, which is not straight and easy. We can say that it resembles a curve, where there are ups and downs, joys and disappointments. In this essay, I am interested in the images of Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova. Not the last place in the life of these heroes is love. The test of love is a traditional technique in Russian literature. But before the main characters approached this test, each of them already had a certain life experience behind them. For example, before meeting Natasha, Prince Andrei had a dream of Toulon, Austerlitz, friendship with Pierre, social activities and disappointment in her. Natasha Rostova does not have such a rich life experience as Andrei Bolkonsky, she is still a child who plays adulthood. Despite the obvious differences between these two heroes, they still have an important similarity: before meeting each other, neither Prince Andrei nor Natasha experienced a real feeling of love in their lives.
Considering love storyline Natasha Rostova - Andrei Bolkonsky, one cannot fail to note the 16th chapter of the 3rd part of the 2nd volume, since this particular episode is the composition of their relationship. Let us turn to the analysis of this chapter and try to determine the role of the episode in revealing the problems of the work, and also trace how a strong and pure feeling of love arises between the characters of the novel. In the previous chapters of the 3rd part of the 2nd volume, it is told how the Rostov family gathered for a ball, where the whole color of society gathered. It is important for Tolstoy to convey the psychological state of Natasha, for whom the ball was a welcome ticket to adulthood. In the 16th chapter, the writer shows the state of mind of his heroine very subtly and truly. To do this, he first describes the outward manifestation of Natasha’s anxiety, excitement (“Natasha felt that she remained ... among the smaller part of the ladies pushed back to the wall ...”, “... stood with her thin hands lowered ...”), then, using a monologue in which every word is important, the author refers to the inner world of the girl (“... holding her breath, she looked with shining frightened eyes ...”). The heroine's monologue is very emotional. He reveals the character of Natasha, shows the whole essence of her nature. The heroine is very sincere, natural, childishly naive, simple. The expression on her face spoke of her “readiness for the greatest joy and for greatest grief". One thought did not give Natasha peace of mind: really “no one will come up to her”, really she will not “dance between the first”, really “all these men will not notice” her? Using this gradation, Tolstoy emphasizes the acuteness of the psychological situation in which Natasha finds herself. The writer draws the attention of readers to the great desire of the heroine to dance. At this moment, Natasha is not interested in anything and no one, her attention is focused on this desire. It can be concluded that the heroine is at that young age when everything is perceived from the point of view of maximalism. She needs to be noticed by adults, supported in difficult times of doubt, worries. Natasha's internal concentration and external absent-mindedness are manifested in the way she perceived the people around her (“She did not listen and did not look at Vera, who was saying something to her ...”). The climax of the 16th chapter comes when the first round of the waltz was announced. At that time, Natasha's condition was close to despair. She was "ready to cry that she was not dancing this first round of the waltz." At this moment, Andrey Bolkonsky appears (“... lively and cheerful, standing ... not far from the Rostovs”). Since he was “a person close to Speransky,” everyone turned to him with “smart” political conversations. But Andrei's work did not bring him satisfaction, so he did not want to hear anything about it, was absent-minded and, like Natasha, believed that "you need to dance at the ball." Therefore, I think it is not surprising that the first to whom he offered the waltz tour was Natasha, who was absolutely, childishly happy when she heard this offer. Prince Andrei is struck by the naturalness, openness, ease of this girl, the lack of metropolitan gloss. Waltzing with him, Natasha experienced some excitement from the fact that hundreds of eyes were watching her dancing with an adult man, from the fact that her dress was very open, and simply from the fact that it was the first waltz in her life at a real ball, where only adults are present. Natasha's timidity, the trembling of her flexible, thin body fascinated Prince Andrei. He feels how his soul comes to life, filled with boundless joy, which the girl, as it were, put into his soul and heart, bringing them back to life, kindling a fire in them (“... he felt revived and rejuvenated ...”).
Analyzing this chapter, it is impossible not to note the image of the sovereign. In the behavior of Emperor Alexander, in his communication with others, a metropolitan gloss is visible. I think that the author does not accidentally draw this image. He contrasts the sovereign and his strict observance of secular standards of decency with the emancipation and simplicity of Natasha Rostova. For the emperor, being present at a ball is a common occurrence, and he acts according to a certain pattern that he has developed over the years. He, as is customary in secular society, does nothing thoughtlessly, he weighs his every step. And Natasha, who first came to the ball, is so happy with everything and does not pay attention to what she says and does. Therefore, a parallel can be drawn between Natasha and the sovereign. This only further emphasizes Natasha's naturalness, childish naivety, her unspoiltness by secular society.
So, from the foregoing, we can conclude that the significance of this chapter lies not only in the fact that in it we see the emergence of a warm, tender feeling of love between two positive characters, but also in the fact that the meeting with Natasha leads Andrei Bolkonsky out of a spiritual crisis , born of disappointment in his unfruitful activity, fills him with strength, a thirst for life. He understands that "life is not over at thirty-one."
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Russian literature of the 2nd half of the 19th century
“In order to live honestly, one must be torn, confused, fought, made mistakes ... and calmness is spiritual meanness” (L. N. Tolstoy). (According to the novel by L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”)
“War and Peace” is one of the rarest examples of the epic novel genre in world literature. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is one of the most widely read Russian authors abroad. The work had an explosive effect on world culture. "War and Peace" - a reflection of Russian life early XIX century, life high society, advanced
nobility. In the future, the sons of these people will come out on Senate Square uphold the ideals of freedom, will go down in history under the name of the Decembrists. The novel was conceived precisely as a disclosure of the motives of the Decembrist movement. Let's figure out what could serve as the beginning of such a great search.
L. N. Tolstoy, as one of the greatest Russian thinkers and philosophers, could not ignore the problem human soul and the meaning of existence. In his characters, the views of the writer on what a person should be are clearly visible. Tolstoy has his own view of how a person should be. The main quality that characterizes the greatness of the soul for him is simplicity. Noble simplicity, not pretentiousness, lack of artificiality, embellishment. Everything should be simple, clear, open and this is great. He likes to create conflicts between small and great, sincere and far-fetched, illusory and real. On the one hand, simplicity and nobility, on the other - pettiness, weakness, unworthy behavior.
Tolstoy does not accidentally create critical, extreme situations for his heroes. It is in them that the true essence of man is manifested. It is important for the author to show that what causes intrigues, strife and squabbles, is unworthy of the spiritual greatness of a person. And it is in the awareness of his own spiritual beginning that Tolstoy sees the meaning of the existence of his heroes. So, the impeccable Prince Andrei only on his deathbed realizes that he really loves Natasha, although life throughout the novel gave him lessons, but he was too proud to learn them. Therefore, he dies. There was an episode in his life when, almost by a hair's breadth, he was able to renounce even the proximity of death, seeing the purity and calmness of the sky over Austerlitz. At that moment, he could understand that everything around is vain and, in fact, insignificant. Only the sky is calm, only the sky is eternal. Tolstoy does not then introduce war into the plot in order to get rid of unnecessary characters or to follow historical themes. For him, war is, first of all, a force that cleanses the world mired in lies and squabbles.
Secular society does not give peace of mind or happiness the best heroes Tolstoy. They do not find a place for themselves among pettiness and malice. Both Pierre and Prince Andrei are trying to find their way in life, because both understand the greatness of their destiny, but they cannot determine what it is or how to realize it.
The path of Pierre is the path of the search for truth. He passes the temptation of copper pipes - he owns almost the most extensive ancestral lands, he has huge capital, marriage to a brilliant secular lioness. Then he enters the Masonic order, but he cannot find the truth there either. Tolstoy sneers at the mysticism of "free masons" as a person who sees meaning not in paraphernalia, but in essence. Pierre is waiting for captivity, a critical and humiliating situation in which he finally realizes the true greatness of his soul, where he can come to the truth: “How? Can they capture me? My immortal soul?!” That is, all the suffering of Pierre, his inability to social life, bad marriage, the ability to love that did not show itself was nothing more than from ignorance of one's inner greatness, one's true essence. After this turning point in his destiny, everything will work out, he will find peace of mind as the long-awaited goal of his search.
The path of Prince Andrei is the path of a warrior. He goes to the front, the wounded returns to the light, tries to start a quiet life, but again ends up on the battlefield. The pain he has experienced teaches him to forgive, and he accepts the truth through suffering. But, being still too proud, he cannot, having known, stay alive. Tolstoy deliberately kills Prince Andrei and leaves Pierre to live, full of humility and unconscious spiritual search.
A worthy life for Tolstoy consists in a constant search, in striving for truth, for light, for understanding. It is no coincidence that he gives his best heroes such names - Peter and Andrei. The first disciples of Christ, whose mission was to follow the truth, for he was the way, and the truth, and the life. The heroes of Tolstoy do not see the truth, and only its search makes up their life path. Tolstoy does not recognize comfort, and the point is not that a person is not worthy of it, the point is that a spiritual person will always strive for the truth, and this state cannot be comfortable in itself, but only it is worthy of human essence, and only so he is able to fulfill his purpose.
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"We did the impossible because we didn't know it was impossible."
W. Isaacson
To live honestly means to live and act according to the truth. An honest person is always sincere and highly moral, has no intentions, supported by self-interest, the desire to harm another person. An honest life is a kind of synonym for a righteous life, and only a few have enough strength for it: it would seem that even the most sincere people, but one day they still make a mistake.
And if you look at the actions of each person, it turns out that absolute honesty without the slightest misconduct is a real miracle, which is very rare. I believe that the pursuit of honesty is a long and difficult path, and any path lies through a series of mistakes, right and wrong decisions.
Honesty is achieved through the internal struggle of the human soul with various desires that are contrary to morality. This is a process of forming a worldview that requires a lot of work. There are many writers in literature whose main task was to describe the human soul and changes in it as a result of various events. However, it is worth highlighting the writer who paid the most attention to reflections on the dialectic of the soul of his characters, Leo Tolstoy.
In his works, the great Russian writer makes literary heroes undergo a huge number of tests.
In the novel War and Peace, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky goes through a long journey of internal clashes and changes. He goes to war with the French, but ends up in another war - with himself. An honest, disinterested life does not imply a desire for material, earthly values, it is aimed at doing good and renouncing evil. Prince Bolkonsky followed his dreams of glory, and this fact does not allow his deeds to become feats. In the battle of Austerlitz, he, seeing that the standard-bearer was killed, sitting on a white horse, picked up the banner and rushed ahead of the soldiers with it.
But was it heroism? Prince Andrei first of all wanted the "beauty of the picture", where he looks like a hero, but all this was insincere, only for his own sake. And only one incident opened his eyes: he began to realize that he was not living honorably when he was wounded in battle, lying under open sky and seeing nothing but nature. This experience, which brought him closer to death, opened his eyes to all the mistakes, all the wrong aspirations by which Andrei Bolkonsky lived. The desire for glory, the greatness of Napoleon, the beauty of his own exploits - everything seemed to him false. In this short time of reflection, he goes a long way, leading him to a true understanding of an honest, heroic life. In the battle near the village of Borodino, a completely different prince Andrei Bolkonsky appears - sincere, honest, who, through his own experience, realized the real values \u200b\u200bof life and understood all his mistakes. Tolstoy proves the idea that an honest life becomes such only through a huge path of one's own mistakes and experience.
An honest person - who does not always think only about himself, and especially a person who thinks first of all about others without thinking about his own advantage - is extremely rare, so much so that it seems almost impossible or is perceived as almost wildness. In the story" Matrenin yard Alexander Issaevich Solzhenitsyn main character, Matryona Vasilievna, appears before the reader as an image of a person with a truly honest life. There were a huge number of obstacles on her way, but she passed each of them and did not break down spiritually, did not make mistakes. She fought, and got confused, and faced many difficulties, experienced the injustice of fate, lost her closest people - children, in a word, did the impossible, but for her it was not a feat. Mistakes were made by all the other people who treated her as a consumer, who realized this only after the death of Matryona Vasilievna - because everything good eventually becomes familiar, if not completely "mandatory", and understanding true value comes only with its loss. Unfortunately, people often mistakenly treat those who choose an honest life unfairly.
Honor only at first glance seems like an easy way, but in fact it is a difficult path that requires a person to be ready to "torn, get confused, fight, make mistakes ..."
Updated: 2016-12-11
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“It’s already been six days since I entered the clinic, and now it’s been six days since I’m almost pleased with myself” - this is how the first diary entry begins, which was made on March 30 (March 17 according to the old style), 1847, by the future great writer and publicist, and the then 19-year-old law student of the Imperial Kazan University, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
In his first entry, the young Tolstoy reflects mainly on the benefits of solitude. “It is easier to write 10 volumes of philosophy than to apply one beginning to practice,” he concludes his reasoning, perhaps with the first of his diary aphorisms.
Having compiled in that first notebook a whole block of rules, which, among other things, included taking notes of all the books read and important events, Leo Tolstoy continued to keep diaries until the end of his life and he himself considered them the most valuable of all that was written. The favorite diary topics of the writer will be religion, family, moral education and love.
Izvestia has selected several vivid quotes from his diaries over the years.
“In order to live honestly, you have to tear, get confused, make mistakes, start and quit ... and always fight and lose. And peace is spiritual meanness.
"Our good qualities harm us more in life than bad ones."
"Nothing so weakens the strength of a person as the hope in anything other than one's own effort to find salvation and good."
"Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves."
“The point of life is not to be great, rich, glorious, but to keep the soul.”
About happiness
“There are two kinds of happiness: the happiness of virtuous people and the happiness of vainglorious people. The first comes from virtue, the second from fate.
“Happiness is more likely to enter a house where a good mood always reigns.”
“Happiness is not in always doing what you want, but in always wanting what you do.”
"Unhappiness makes virtuous - virtue makes happy - happiness makes vicious."
“When I was looking for pleasure, it fled from me, and I fell into a difficult situation of boredom - a state from which you can go to everything - good and bad; and rather to the latter. Now that I'm only trying to avoid boredom, I find pleasure in everything.
“It is strange that I have to be silent with people living around me and speak only to those distant in time and place who will hear me.”
“The secret is that every minute I am different and still the same. The fact that I am still the same makes my consciousness; the fact that I am different every minute is what makes space and time.
About knowledge
“The point is not to know a lot, but to know the most necessary of all that can be known.”
"Knowledge is a tool, not a goal."
“For the common cause, it is probably better for everyone to do what he is told, and not what seems good to him.”
“What you have proposed to do, do not put off under the pretext of absent-mindedness or entertainment; but immediately, although outwardly, get down to business. Thoughts will come.
"It's better to try and mess up (a thing that can be redone) than to do nothing."
"Strive to do your duty, and you will immediately know what you are worth."
“There is a side to the dream that is better than reality; in reality there is a better side to dreams. Complete happiness would be a combination of both.
“I don’t know how others dream, no matter how much I have heard or read, it’s not at all like me. Others say that the mountains seemed to say this and that, and the leaves that and that, and the trees called there and then. How can such a thought come? You have to try hard to drive such absurdity into your head.
About peoples
“The life of all peoples is the same everywhere. More cruel, inhuman, promenading people feed on violence, war, softer, meek, industrious people prefer to endure. History is the history of these violence and the struggle against them.”
“If the Russian people are uncivilized barbarians, then we have a future. The Western peoples are civilized barbarians, and they have nothing to look forward to.”
“Western peoples have abandoned agriculture and everyone wants to rule. You can’t get over yourself, so they are looking for colonies and markets.”
About family and relationships
“There are moments when a man tells a woman more than she needs to know about him. He said - and forgot, but she remembers.
“There is a strange, rooted misconception that cooking, sewing, washing, nursing are exclusively women's business, that it is even a shame for a man to do this. Meanwhile, the opposite is insulting: it is a shame for a man, often unoccupied, to spend time on trifles or do nothing while a tired, often weak, pregnant woman cooks, launders or nurses a sick child through force.
"If how many heads - so many minds, then how many hearts - so many kinds of love."
About old age
"Old age is the biggest surprise in life."
“In extreme old age comes the most precious, necessary life both for yourself and for others. The value of life is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from death.
Last Diary
On August 16, 1910 (August 29, old style) - less than two months before his death - Lev Nikolayevich will begin his last diary notebook, titled "A Diary for Himself."
“It's the same, even worse. Just don't sin. And have no evil. Now it’s gone,” Leo Tolstoy wrote in it two months later, on October 16, 1910.
On November 7, 1910, Leo Tolstoy died in the village of Astapovo, Ryazan province. After him, about 4.7 thousand pages of diary entries remained, which made up 13 of the 22 volumes of the complete works of the writer.
September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana was born Leo Tolstoy, one of the the greatest writers world, a participant in the defense of Sevastopol, the creator of the religious movement - Tolstoyanism, an educator and teacher. Based on his works, films are made and plays are staged all over the world.
On the occasion of the 188th anniversary of the great writer, the site has collected 10 vivid statements by Leo Tolstoy from different years - original advice that is still relevant to this day.
1. "Each person is a diamond that can purify and not purify himself, to the extent that he is purified, eternal light shines through him, therefore, the business of a person is not to try to shine, but to try to purify himself."
2. “It is true that where there is gold, there is also much sand; but this cannot in any way be a reason to say a lot of nonsense in order to say something smart.
"What is art?"
3. “The work of life, the purpose of her joy. Rejoice in heaven, in the sun. On stars, on grass, on trees, on animals, on people. This joy is being destroyed. You made a mistake somewhere - look for this mistake and correct it. This joy is most often violated by self-interest, ambition ... Be like children - always rejoice.
Museum-Estate Yasnaya Polyana Photo: www.globallookpress.com
4. “For me, the madness, the criminality of the war, especially recently, when I have been writing and therefore thinking a lot about the war, is so clear that apart from this madness and criminality I can see nothing in it.”
5. “People are like rivers: the water is the same in all and the same everywhere, but each river is sometimes narrow, sometimes fast, sometimes wide, sometimes quiet. So are people. Each person carries in himself the rudiments of all human properties and sometimes manifests one, sometimes another, and is often completely unlike himself, remaining one and himself.
"Sunday". 1889-1899
6. “...upbringing seems to be a complex and difficult matter only as long as we want, without educating ourselves, to educate our children or anyone else. If we understand that we can educate others only through ourselves, by educating ourselves, then the question of education is abolished and one question of life remains: how should one live oneself? I don't know of a single act of raising children that doesn't include educating yourself."
7. “A scientist is one who knows a lot from books; educated - one who has mastered all the most common knowledge and techniques of his time; the enlightened one who understands the meaning of his life.
"Reading Circle"
8. “In order to live honestly, one must be torn, confused, fought, abandoned, and forever struggled and deprived. And peace is spiritual meanness.
Letter to A.A. Tolstoy. October 1857
Frame from the film Anna Karenina, Mosfilm studio, 1967 Photo: www.globallookpress.com
9. “Happy periods of my life were only those when I devoted my whole life to serving people. These were: schools, mediation, starvation and religious assistance.”
10. "My whole idea is that if vicious people are interconnected and constitute a force, then honest people need to do only the same thing."
"War and Peace". Epilogue. 1863-1868