Tolstoy war and peace. Essay on the topic “female images in the novel l.n.
Essay on literature. Female images in L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”
L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” shows the life of Russian society at the beginning of the 19th century during the War of 1812. This is a time of active social activity of a wide variety of people. Tolstoy is trying to comprehend the role of women in the life of society, in the family. To this end, he displays in his novel a large number of female characters, which can be divided into two large groups: the first includes women who are bearers of folk ideals, such as Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya and others, and the second group includes women of high society, such as Helen Kuragina, Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Julie Kuragina and others.
One of the most striking female images in the novel is the image of Natasha Rostova. Being a master of depicting human souls and characters, Tolstoy embodied the best features of the human personality in the image of Natasha. He did not want to portray her as smart, calculating, adapted to life and at the same time completely soulless, as he made the other heroine of the novel, Helen Kuragina. Simplicity and spirituality make Natasha more attractive than Helen with her intelligence and good social manners. Many episodes of the novel tell how Natasha inspires people, makes them better, kinder, helps them find love for life, and find the right solutions. For example, when Nikolai Rostov, having lost a large sum of money at cards to Dolokhov, returns home irritated, not feeling the joy of life, he hears Natasha singing and suddenly realizes that “all this: misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - it’s all nonsense, but she’s real...”
But Natasha not only helps people in difficult life situations, she also simply brings them joy and happiness, gives them the opportunity to admire herself, and does this unconsciously and disinterestedly, as in the episode of the dance after the hunt, when she “stood up and smiled solemnly, proudly and cunningly.” - fun, the first fear that gripped Nikolai and everyone present, the fear that she would do the wrong thing, passed, and they were already admiring her.”
Just like she is close to the people, Natasha is also close to understanding the amazing beauty of nature. When describing the night in Otradnoye, the author compares the feelings of two sisters, closest friends, Sonya and Natasha. Natasha, whose soul is full of bright poetic feelings, asks Sonya to go to the window, peer into the extraordinary beauty of the starry sky, and inhale the smells that fill the quiet night. She exclaims: “After all, such a lovely night has never happened!” But Sonya cannot understand Natasha’s enthusiastic excitement. She does not have the inner fire that Tolstoy sang in Natasha. Sonya is kind, sweet, honest, friendly, she does not commit a single bad act and carries her love for Nikolai through the years. She is too good and correct, she never makes mistakes from which she could learn life experience and get an incentive for further development.
Natasha makes mistakes and draws from them the necessary life experience. She meets Prince Andrei, their feelings can be called a sudden unity of thoughts, they suddenly understood each other, felt something uniting them.
But nevertheless, Natasha suddenly falls in love with Anatoly Kuragin, even wants to run away with him. An explanation for this can be that Natasha is a very ordinary person, with her own weaknesses. Her heart is characterized by simplicity, openness, and gullibility; she simply follows her feelings, not being able to subordinate them to reason. But true love woke up in Natasha much later. She realized that the one she admired, who was dear to her, lived in her heart all this time. It was a joyful and new feeling that absorbed Natasha entirely, bringing her back to life. Pierre Bezukhov played an important role in this. His “childish soul” was close to Natasha, and he was the only one who brought joy and light into the Rostov house when she felt bad, when she was tormented by remorse, suffered, and hated herself for everything that happened. She did not see reproach or indignation in Pierre's eyes. He idolized her, and she was grateful to him for being in the world. Despite the mistakes of her youth, despite the death of her loved one, Natasha’s life was amazing. She was able to experience love and hate, create a magnificent family, finding in it the much-desired peace of mind.
In some ways she is similar to Natasha, but in some ways she is opposed to Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. The main principle to which her whole life is subordinated is self-sacrifice. This self-sacrifice, submission to fate is combined in her with a thirst for simple human happiness. Submission to all the whims of her domineering father, a ban on discussing his actions and their motives - this is how Princess Marya understands her duty to her daughter. But she can show strength of character if necessary, which is revealed when her sense of patriotism is offended. She not only leaves the family estate, despite Mademoiselle Bourien's proposal, but also forbids her to let her companion in when she learns about her connections with the enemy command. But to save another person, she can sacrifice her pride; this is evident when she asks for forgiveness from Mademoiselle Bourrienne, forgiveness for herself and for the servant on whom her father’s wrath fell. And yet, by elevating her sacrifice to a principle, turning away from “living life,” Princess Marya suppresses something important in herself. And yet, it was sacrificial love that led her to family happiness: when she met Nikolai in Voronezh, “for the first time, all this pure, spiritual, inner work with which she had lived until now came out.” Princess Marya fully revealed herself as a person when circumstances prompted her to become independent in life, which happened after the death of her father, and most importantly, when she became a wife and mother. Her diaries dedicated to her children and her ennobling influence on her husband speak about the harmony and richness of Marya Rostova’s inner world.
These two women, who are similar in many ways, are contrasted with ladies of high society, such as Helen Kuragina, Anna Pavlovna Scherer, and Julie Kuragina. These women are similar in many ways. At the beginning of the novel, the author says that Helen, “when the story made an impression, looked back at Anna Pavlovna and immediately took on the same expression that was on the face of the maid of honor.” The most characteristic sign of Anna Pavlovna is the static nature of words, gestures, even thoughts: “The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her sweet shortcoming, from which she wants, cannot, does not find it necessary to get rid of it.” Behind this characteristic lies the author's irony and hostility towards the character.
Julie is a fellow socialite, “the richest bride in Russia,” who received a fortune after the death of her brothers. Like Helen, who wears a mask of decency, Julie wears a mask of melancholy: “Julie seemed disappointed in everything, told everyone that she did not believe in friendship, love, or any joys of life and expected peace only “there.” Even Boris, preoccupied with searching for a rich bride, feels the artificiality and unnaturalness of her behavior.
So, women close to natural life and folk ideals, such as Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, find family happiness after going through a certain path of spiritual and moral quest. And women, far from moral ideals, cannot experience true happiness because of their selfishness and adherence to the empty ideals of secular society.
L. N. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace” is a grandiose work not only in the monumentality of the historical events described in it, deeply researched by the author and artistically processed into a single logical whole, but also in the variety of created images, both historical and fictional. In depicting historical characters, Tolstoy was more of a historian than a writer; he said: “Where historical figures speak and act, he did not invent and used materials.” Fictional images are described artistically and at the same time are conductors of the author’s thoughts. Female characters convey Tolstoy's ideas about the complexity of human nature, about the peculiarities of relationships between people, about family, marriage, motherhood, and happiness.
From the point of view of the system of images, the heroes of the novel can be conditionally divided into “living” and “dead”, that is, developing, changing over time, deeply feeling and experiencing and - in contrast to them - frozen, not evolving, but static. There are women in both “camps”, and there are so many female images that it seems almost impossible to mention them all in the essay; perhaps it would be wiser to dwell in more detail on the main characters and typical secondary characters who play a significant role in the development of the plot.
The “living” heroines in the work are, first of all, Natasha Rostova and Marya Bolkonskaya. Despite the difference in upbringing, family traditions, atmosphere at home, character, in the end they become close friends. Natasha, who grew up in a warm, loving, open, sincere family atmosphere, having absorbed the carelessness, dashing, and enthusiasm of the “Rostov breed,” has been winning hearts since her youth with her all-encompassing love for people and her thirst for reciprocal love. Beauty in the generally accepted sense of the word is replaced by mobility of features, liveliness of the eyes, grace, flexibility; her wonderful voice and ability to dance captivate many. Princess Marya, on the contrary, is clumsy, the ugliness of her face is only occasionally illuminated by her “radiant eyes.” Life without going out in the village makes her wild and silent, communication with her is difficult. Only a sensitive and insightful person can notice the purity, religiosity, even self-sacrifice hidden behind external isolation (after all, in quarrels with her father, Princess Marya blames only herself, not recognizing his temper and rudeness). However, at the same time, the two heroines have much in common: a living, developing inner world, a craving for high feelings, spiritual purity, and a clear conscience. Fate pits both of them against Anatoly Kuragin, and only chance saves Natasha and Princess Marya from a connection with him. Due to their naivety, the girls do not see Kuragin’s low and selfish goals and believe in his sincerity. Due to the external difference, the relationship between the heroines is not easy at first, misunderstanding, even contempt arises, but then, having gotten to know each other better, they become irreplaceable friends, forming an indivisible moral union, united by the best spiritual qualities of Tolstoy’s favorite heroines.
In constructing a system of images, Tolstoy is far from schematism: the line between the “living” and the “dead” is permeable. Tolstoy wrote: “For an artist there cannot and should not be heroes, but there must be people.” Therefore, female images appear in the fabric of the work, which are difficult to definitely classify as “living” or “dead”. This can be considered the mother of Natasha Rostova, Countess Natalya Rostova. From the conversations of the characters, it becomes clear that in her youth she moved in society and was a member and welcome guest of salons. But, having married Rostov, she changes and devotes herself to her family. Rostova as a mother is an example of cordiality, love and tact. She is a close friend and adviser to the children: in touching conversations in the evenings, Natasha devotes her mother to all her secrets, secrets, experiences, and seeks her advice and help. At the same time, at the time of the main action of the novel, her inner world is static, but this can be explained by a significant evolution in her youth. She becomes a mother not only for her children, but also for Sonya. Sonya gravitates towards the camp of the “dead”: she does not have that seething cheerfulness that Natasha has, she is not dynamic, not impulsive. This is especially emphasized by the fact that at the beginning of the novel Sonya and Natasha are always together. Tolstoy gave this generally good girl an unenviable fate: falling in love with Nikolai Rostov does not bring her happiness, since for reasons of the well-being of the family, Nikolai’s mother cannot allow this marriage. Sonya feels gratitude to the Rostovs and focuses on her so much that she becomes fixated on the role of the victim. She does not accept Dolokhov’s proposal, refusing to advertise her feelings for Nikolai. She lives in hope, basically showing off and demonstrating her unrecognized love.
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“War and Peace” is, without a doubt, one of the pinnacles of Russian literature. Leo Tolstoy touches on acute social and philosophical problems. But also worthy of attention are the female characters in the novel “War and Peace,” which represent the roles of female characters - both in times of war and peace.
Prototypes of female images of “War and Peace”
We invite curious readers to familiarize themselves with what is described in Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”
Leo Tolstoy admitted to Mitrofan Polivanov, a childhood friend and former fiancé of Sofia Andreevna, that his family served as inspiration for creating the image of the Rostov family. In correspondence with Polivanov, memoirist Tatyana Kuzminskaya - the sister of Sofia Tolstoy - notes that Boris is based on the image of Mitrofan himself, Vera - on Lisa (especially the features of sedateness and attitude towards others). The writer endowed Countess Rostova with the features of a mother-in-law - the mother of Sofia Andreevna and Tatyana. Kuzminskaya also found common features between herself and the image of Natasha Rostova.
In addition to the fact that Tolstoy took many of the traits and qualities of the characters from real people, the writer also mentioned in the novel many events that happened in reality. For example, Kuzminskaya recalls the episode of her wedding with the Mimi doll. It is known that Leo Tolstoy highly appreciated the literary talents of “Bersov”, that is, his wife, Tatyana Kuzminskaya and his own children. Therefore, Berses occupy a significant place in War and Peace.
Viktor Shklovsky, however, believes that the issue of prototypes is not resolved unambiguously. The critic recalls the stories of the first readers of War and Peace, who actually recognized images of people in the work - their friends and loved ones. But now, according to Shklovsky, we cannot adequately say that such and such a person served as the prototype for this character. Most often they talk about the image of Natasha Rostova and the fact that Tolstoy chose Tatyana Kuzminskaya as the prototype for the heroine. But Shklovsky makes a remark: modern readers did not and could not know Kuzminskaya, and therefore it is impossible to objectively judge how Tatyana Andreevna matches Natasha’s features (or vice versa – Natasha – Tatyana). There is another version of the “origin” of the image of the younger Countess Rostova: Tolstoy allegedly borrowed the “template” of the character from some English novel, providing the qualities of Sofia Andreevna. In his letters, Lev Nikolaevich himself reports that the image of Natasha Rostova is a mix, a “mixture” of characteristic features of women who were important in the writer’s life.
Maria, Andrei Bolkonsky’s sister, is based on the writer’s mother, Maria Volkonskaya. It is noteworthy that in this case Tolstoy did not change the name of the heroine, leaving it as similar as possible to the name of the prototype. The elder Countess of Rostov bears a resemblance to the author’s grandmother: we are talking about Pelageya Tolstoy. The writer’s attitude towards these heroines is emphasized tender and warm. It is clear that Tolstoy invested a lot of effort and emotion into the creation of female characters.
Dear book lovers! We bring to your attention the novel “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.
Rostov occupies a special place. The family's surname was formed by transforming the writer's surname. This explains why among the images of the Rostovs there are so many similarities with the family and relatives of Leo Tolstoy.
Interesting details surround another prototype of the heroine of War and Peace, Lisa Bolkonskaya, the wife of Prince Andrei. Readers sometimes ask why Tolstoy treated this character so cruelly: as we remember, the literary Liza Bolkonskaya is dying. This image was generated by the personality of the wife of the second cousin of the author of “War and Peace” (Alexander Volkonsky) - Louise Ivanovna Volkonskaya-Truson. Tolstoy describes unusual and “best” memories that relate specifically to Louise. There is a version that 23-year-old Tolstoy was in love with a 26-year-old flirtatious relative. It is curious that the writer denied that the prototype of Lisa is Louise Volkonskaya. However, Sofya Andreevna, the author’s wife, wrote that she found similarities between Lisa and Louise Ivanovna.
The reader will certainly find many similarities between the people who surrounded Tolstoy and the images created by the writer. But it is worth mentioning one more thought of Viktor Shklovsky: prototypes are the tragedy of the author, who tries to hide from the prototypes in the novel, to avoid parallels with real persons, which never works.
The female theme in the novel by Leo Tolstoy
The title of the work forces the writer to divide the novel into two parts - war and peace. War is traditionally associated with masculine traits, with cruelty and rudeness, and the coldness of life. The world is identified with the regularity, predictable calm of everyday life and the image of a woman. However, Lev Nikolaevich demonstrates that during periods of the highest tension of human strength, in a situation, for example, war, masculine and feminine traits are mixed in one person. Therefore, the women in the novel are meek and patient, but at the same time, strong in spirit, capable of bold and desperate actions.
Natasha Rostova
The young Countess of Rostov is the writer’s favorite. This can be felt in the tenderness with which the creator of War and Peace approaches writing the image of the heroine. The reader witnesses the changes happening to Natasha as the events of the novel develop. Something in the younger Rostova remains unchanged: the desire to love, devotion, sincerity and simplicity, intricately combined with the sophistication of nature.
At the beginning of the story, the Countess appears as a child. Natasha is 13-14 years old, we know something of the girl’s background. Natasha's first childhood love was Boris Drubetskoy, who lived next door to the Rostov estate. Boris will later leave his father's house to serve under Kutuzov. The theme of love will continue to occupy a significant place in Natasha’s life.
The reader first meets the young countess in the Rostov house. The episode is the name day of the eldest countess and the youngest daughter, both Natasha. The youngest Rostova behaves flirtatiously and a little capriciously, because she understands that the sweet child is allowed everything on this day. Parents love their daughter. Peace reigns in the Rostov family, an atmosphere of hospitality and friendliness.
Then, before the eyes of the readers, Natasha turns into a girl who grows up, forms a worldview and a picture of the world, studying her awakening sensuality. From a small, lively, ugly, constantly laughing, big-mouthed girl suddenly grows into an adult, romantic and sophisticated girl. Natasha's heart is ready to open to great feelings. At this time, the Countess meets Prince Bolkonsky, who lost his wife and experienced a spiritual crisis after the military events. Prince Andrey, who, it would seem, is the direct opposite of the younger Countess Rostova, proposes to the girl. The prince's decision is accompanied by internal struggle and doubts about Natasha.
Natasha is not depicted as ideal: the girl is no stranger to mistakes, frivolous actions, and what can be called humanity. Rostova is amorous and flighty. At the insistence of his father, Andrei Bolkonsky postponed his engagement to Natasha for a year, but the girl did not pass the test, being carried away by the handsome but womanizer Anatoly Kuragin. Rostov takes Anatoly's betrayal seriously, even trying to commit suicide. But music and a passion for art help Natasha to withstand the wind of life’s difficulties.
After the war with Napoleon, Natasha again meets an old childhood friend, Pierre Bezukhov. Rostova sees purity in Pierre. In one of the dialogues of the novel, Bezukhov, who returned from the war, was in captivity, and rethought his life, is compared to a man who has taken a bath. In her relationship with Pierre, Natasha shows completely different traits from her youthful image: now she is a woman, mature, confident in her feelings, a devoted mother and wife, serious, but still in need of love.
Special emphasis should be placed on Natasha’s patriotism. During the retreat from Moscow, the girl insisted that the carts on which the family belongings were transported be cleared for the wounded. By sacrificing property, Natasha demonstrates her understanding of the value of the life of a simple soldier. This image is reminiscent of the story of how the daughters of the last Russian emperor, during the First World War, worked in the hospital as ordinary nurses, changing the bandages of sick and wounded soldiers.
Natasha is filled with passion for life, she is a charming, light, cheerful girl. Rostova manages to maintain this lightness even while caring for the dying Prince Andrei. Despite the past, Natasha selflessly takes care of the seriously wounded Bolkonsky: the prince dies in the arms of his former bride.
Elder Princess of Rostov
Natalya, Natasha Rostova's mother, is described as a wise and mature woman. The heroine, the mother of the family, is supposed to be strict. In fact, the woman is kind and loving, only feigning anger at capricious children - for educational purposes.
It is typical for the Rostovs not to draw a moral line between themselves and the common people. This is combined with the liberal tendencies that dominated among the nobles at that time. Contrary to the accepted rules of good manners, the eldest Rostova is a compassionate person, striving to help friends and acquaintances in need.
At first glance, Natalya Rostova gives children complete freedom of choice. But, if you take a closer look, the Countess, like a mother, is worried about the future of her children. Natalya is trying to push Boris Drubetsky away from his youngest daughter and make sure that Nikolai makes a profitable match. To achieve this, Natalya does not allow her son to marry his beloved, Sophia. The girl was a relative of Nikolai Rostov, but did not have a penny behind her, which embarrassed the young man’s mother. The image of the elder Countess Rostova is an expression of pure and all-consuming maternal love.
Vera Rostova
The image of Natasha’s sister, Vera, is located a little to the side on the map of War and Peace characters. Vera's beauty is oppressed by the coldness of the girl's nature. Leo Tolstoy emphasizes that Natasha, despite the ugliness of her facial features, created the impression of a very pretty person. This effect was achieved due to the beauty of the inner world. Vera, on the contrary, was attractive in appearance, but the girl’s inner world was far from perfect.
Vera is described as an unsociable, withdrawn young lady. The girl’s face sometimes even became unpleasant. Vera is a selfish nature and focused on her own person, so Vera did not like the company of her younger brothers and sister.
Vera Rostova’s character trait is self-absorption, which distinguished the girl from the rest of her relatives, who are more likely to have a sincere attitude towards others. Vera becomes the wife of a certain Colonel Berg: this match suits the girl’s character very well.
Lisa Bolkonskaya
Prince Andrei's wife. A hereditary aristocrat who came from an influential noble family. For example, Lev Nikolaevich writes that Kutuzov himself was the girl’s uncle. As a girl, the heroine’s name was Lisa Meinen, but the reader is not told anything about Lisa’s childhood, parents and teenage life. We know this character only from “adult life”.
Liza’s relationship with the Bolkonskys is neutral. Lisa appears as a miniature, light and cheerful girl, balancing the difficult character of Prince Andrei. However, Bolkonsky is tired of his wife's company. In a fit of mental turmoil, the prince leaves for war. Pregnant Lisa is awaiting her husband's return. But marital happiness was not destined to come true, since on the day of Andrei’s arrival, Lisa dies in childbirth. It is tragic that, upon returning, Andrei firmly decided to try to start his relationship with his wife from scratch. Lisa's death upsets Bolkonsky: the prince falls into a state of gloom and depression for a long time.
The cheerful Lisa is liked by all the guests who come to the Bolkonskys’ house. However, the relationship with her husband is not going well. Before marriage, romance reigned between the future spouses, but in the process of family life disappointment comes. Lisa and Andrey are not united by a common outlook on life or common goals: the spouses live as if separately. Lisa is a big child. The woman is capricious, a little eccentric, and observation is not typical for the princess. In general, the princess is kind and sincere.
Marya Bolkonskaya
The sister of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is a merciful and deep girl. The first impression of Princess Marya is that she is an unhappy girl suffering from her own unattractiveness, sad and withdrawn. The princess, meanwhile, is kind and caring, devotedly caring for her dying father, who was always pointedly rude and tyrannical with his daughter.
Marya is distinguished by intelligence and wisdom, maturity acquired in an isolated life. The girl is adorned with eyes that focus all attention on themselves - so that the princess’s ugliness becomes unnoticeable. The uniqueness of the image of Marya Bolkonskaya requires attention to the girl’s spiritual life. Gradually the reader sees how strong the heroine’s nature is, how strong her character is. Marya protects the estate from plunder by the French and buries her father.
The girl’s dreams, meanwhile, are simple, but unattainable. Marya wants family life, warmth, children. The princess is described as a fairly mature girl, who is about to get married. Anatol Kuragin seems to Bolkonskaya a candidate suitable for her status. But later the princess finds out that the chosen one is married. Out of sympathy for the unfortunate woman - Anatole's wife - Marya refuses marriage. However, family happiness still awaits the girl: the princess will marry Nikolai Rostov. Marriage with Nikolai is beneficial to both: for the Rostov family it is salvation from poverty, for Princess Bolkonskaya it is salvation from a lonely life.
Marya does not like Natasha. Relations between the girls improve after the death of Prince Andrei. Natasha’s selflessness, shown during her brother’s injury, helped the princess change her mind about Rostova.
Elen Kuragin
Elena Vasilievna Kuragina is a beautiful princess who became the first wife of Pierre Bezukhov. The princess looked like an antique statue, and the girl’s face was enlivened by deep, black eyes. Helen was well versed in fashion and was known as a lover of dresses and jewelry. The princess's outfits were always characterized by excessive frankness, bare shoulders and back. The reader is not told anything about Helen's age. But the heroine’s manners are truly aristocratic and stately.
A graduate of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, Helen showed a calm character, self-control, and upbringing worthy of a real society lady. The heroine is characterized by sociability and a love of noisy parties, which Helen organized at home, hosting “the whole of St. Petersburg.”
Helen's appearance, attention to her beauty, smile and bare shoulders characterizes the girl's soullessness, fixation exclusively on physicality. Helen is a stupid woman, not distinguished by her intelligence and high moral qualities. Meanwhile, the princess knows how to present herself, so those around her have an illusion about Helen’s intelligence. Meanness, heartlessness, emptiness - this is what distinguishes the girl. Morally, she was not far from her brother Anatole.
The narrative unfolds in such a way that the writer demonstrates Helen’s penchant for debauchery, hypocrisy, and deception. The princess turns out to be a rude and vulgar woman, but purposeful: Kuragina gets what she wants.
Helen starts numerous affairs on the side and even converts to the Catholic faith in order to divorce Pierre Bezukhov and remarry. As a result, Kuragina dies very young from an illness, presumably of a venereal nature.
Plan: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Secondary school s/p “Pivan Village”
Essay
Female images of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace".
Completed by: Olya Rubashova
Checked:_______________
2008
1. Introduction
2. Natasha Rostova
3. Maria Bolkonskaya.
4. Conclusion
Introduction
It is impossible to imagine world literature without the image of a woman. Even without being the main character of the work, she brings some special character to the narrative. Since the beginning of the world, men have admired, idolized and worshiped the fair half of humanity. A woman is always surrounded by an aura of mystery and mystery. The woman’s actions lead to confusion and bewilderment. To delve into the psychology of a woman and understand her is the same as solving one of the most ancient mysteries of the Universe.
Russian writers always give women a special place in their works. Everyone, of course, sees her in his own way, but for everyone she will forever remain support and hope, an object of admiration. Turgenev sang the image of a persistent, honest woman, capable of making any sacrifice for the sake of love. Chernyshevsky, being a democratic revolutionary, advocated the equality of men and women, valued intelligence in a woman, saw and respected a person in her. Tolstoy's ideal is natural life - this is life in all its manifestations, with all the natural feelings inherent in man - love, hatred, friendship. And of course, such an ideal for Tolstoy is Natasha Rostova. She is natural, and this naturalness is contained in her from birth.
Many writers transferred the character traits of their beloved women to the images of the heroines of their works. I think this is why the image of a woman in Russian literature is so striking in its brightness, originality, and strength of emotional experiences.
Beloved women have always served as a source of inspiration for men. Everyone has their own ideal of women, but at all times, representatives of the stronger sex have admired women’s devotion, ability to sacrifice, and patience. A true woman will forever remain inextricably linked with her family, children, and home. And men will never cease to be surprised by women’s whims, seek explanations for women’s actions, and fight for women’s love!
Natasha Rostova
Tolstoy showed his ideal in the image of Natasha Rostova. For him, she was the true woman.
Throughout the entire novel, we follow how a little playful girl becomes a real woman, a mother, a loving wife, and a homemaker.
From the very beginning, Tolstoy emphasizes that there is not an ounce of falsehood in Natasha; she senses unnaturalness and lies more acutely than anyone else. With her appearance at the name day in a living room full of official ladies, she disrupts this atmosphere of pretense. All her actions are subordinated to feelings, not reason. She even sees people in her own way: Boris is black, narrow, like a mantel clock, and Pierre is square, red-brown. For her, these characteristics are enough to understand who is who.
Natasha is called "living life" in the novel. With her energy, she inspires life in those around her. With support and understanding, the heroine practically saves her mother after the death of Petrusha. Prince Andrei, who managed to say goodbye to all the joys of life, seeing Natasha, felt that all was not lost for him. And after the engagement, the whole world for Andrey seemed to be divided into two parts: one is where Natasha is, where everything is light, the other is everything else, where there is only darkness.
Natasha can be forgiven for her passion for Kuragin. This was the only time her intuition failed her! All her actions are subject to momentary impulses, which cannot always be explained. She did not understand Andrei’s desire to postpone the wedding for a year. Natasha tried to live every second, and a year for her was equal to eternity. Tolstoy endows his heroine with all the best qualities, moreover, she rarely evaluates her actions, most often relying on her inner moral sense.
Like all his favorite heroes, the author sees Natasha Rostova as part of the people. He emphasizes this in the scene at his uncle’s, when “the countess, raised by a French emigrant,” danced no worse than Agafya. This feeling of unity with the people, as well as true patriotism, pushes Natasha to give away all the carts for the wounded when leaving Moscow and leave almost all her things in the city.
Even the highly spiritual Princess Marya, who at first did not love the “pagan” Natasha, understood her and accepted her for who she is. Natasha Rostova was not very smart, and that was not important for Tolstoy. “Now, when he (Pierre) told all this to Natasha, he experienced that rare pleasure that women give when listening to a man - not smart women who, while listening, try to remember what they are told, in order to enrich their minds and on occasion to retell the same... but the pleasure that real women give, gifted with the ability to select and suck into themselves all the best that is in a man’s manifestations.”
Natasha realized herself as a wife and mother. Tolstoy emphasizes that she herself raised all her children (an impossible thing for a noblewoman), but for the author this is absolutely natural. Her family happiness came and was felt by her after experiencing several small and large love dramas. I don’t want to say that the author needed all of Natasha’s hobbies only so that after them the heroine could experience all the delights of family life. They also have another artistic function - they serve the purpose of outlining the character of the heroine, showing her inner world, age-related changes, etc. Tolstoy distinguishes between her early hobbies and her later, more serious ones. The heroine herself notices the transition from childhood amorousness to true love. She talks about this when she fell in love with Andrei Bolkonsky: “I was in love with Boris, with the teacher, with Denisov, but this is not the same at all. I feel calm and firm. I know that there are no better people than him, and I feel so calm, good now, not at all like before.” And even before, it turns out, she did not attach much importance to her affections, without reproach she admitted to herself her own frivolity. Let us remember how she contrasted herself with Sonya: “She loves someone forever, but I don’t understand this, I’ll forget now.” According to fifteen-year-old Natasha, she never wanted to get married at that time and was going to tell Boris about it when she first met him, although she considered him her fiancé. However, the change of attachments does not indicate Natasha’s inconstancy and infidelity. Everything is explained by her exceptional cheerfulness, which gives the young heroine a sweet charm. Beloved by everyone, a “sorceress” - as Vasily Denisov put it, Natasha charmed people not only with her external beauty, but with her spiritual makeup. Her face was not particularly attractive; even the flaws in it were distinguished by the author, which became more noticeable when she cried. “And Natasha, opening her big mouth and becoming completely different, began to roar like a child.” But she always remained beautiful when her girlish appearance was illuminated by the inner light. Tolstoy tries with all poetic means to convey her feeling of the joy of being. She experiences the happiness of living, peering inquisitively into the world, which surprises and pleases her more and more. Maybe this comes from the fact that she feels within herself all the potential to be loved and happy. The girl felt early that there was a lot of interesting and promising things in the world for her. After all, Tolstoy says that moments of experiencing feelings of joy were for her “a state of self-love.”
She surprised Andrei Bolkonsky with her cheerfulness: “What is she thinking about? Why is she so happy? Natasha herself valued her joyful mood. She had a special regard for an old dress that made her cheerful in the morning. Natasha's thirst for new impressions, playfulness, and a sense of delight were especially evident when she met her brother Nikolai and Vasily Denisov, who came to the Rostovs on leave. She “jumped like a goat all in one place and squealed shrilly.” Everything was extremely interesting and funny to her.
One of the sources of joy for her was the first feelings of love. She loved everything that seemed good to her. Natasha the girl’s attitude towards her loved one can be judged by how Yogel shows her well-being. “She was not in love with anyone in particular, but she was in love with everyone. The one she looked at, the minute she looked, she was in love with.” As we see, the love theme does not acquire independent meaning in the novel, serving only to reveal the spiritual appearance of the heroine. Another thing is love for Andrei, Anatoly Kuragin, Pierre: it is somehow connected with the problems of family and marriage. I have already talked about this to some extent and will continue to talk about it ahead. Here it should only be noted that in the scandalous story with Anatoly Kuragin, which cost Natasha difficult experiences, the view of a woman only as an instrument of pleasure is condemned.
Maria Bolkonskaya
Another female image that attracted my attention in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace", is Princess Marya. This heroine is so beautiful inside that her appearance doesn't matter. Her eyes emit such light that her face loses its ugliness.
Marya sincerely believes in God, she believes that only He has the right to forgive and have mercy. She scolds herself for unkind thoughts, for disobedience to her father, and tries to see only the good in others. She is proud and grateful, like her brother, but her pride does not offend her, because kindness, an integral part of her nature, softens this sometimes unpleasant feeling for others.
In my opinion, the image of Marya Bolkonskaya is the image of a guardian angel. She protects everyone for whom she feels even the slightest responsibility. Tolstoy believes that a person like Princess Marya deserves much more than an alliance with Anatoly Kuragin, who never understood what treasure he had lost; however, he had completely different moral values.
She lives by the naive worldview of church legend, which evokes the critical attitude of Prince Andrei and does not coincide with the views of Pierre Bezukhy and Tolstoy himself. At the time of the best state of his health and spirit, that is, before the crisis of his near-death experiences, Prince Andrei did not take Mary’s religious teachings seriously. It is only out of condescension towards his sister that he considers her religiosity. Taking the cross from her on the day of his departure for the army, Andrei jokingly remarks: “If he doesn’t break his neck by two pounds, then I’ll give you pleasure.” In his heavy thoughts on the Borodino field, Andrei doubts the dogmas of the church professed by Princess Marya, feeling their unconvincingness. “My father also built in Bald Mountains and thought that this was his place, his land, his air, his men, but Napoleon came and, not knowing about his existence, like a puppy from the road, pushed him and his Bald Mountains fell apart, and all his life. And Princess Marya says that this is a test sent from above. What is the purpose of a test when there is none and there will never be one? Never again! He's gone! So who is this testing for? As for Tolstoy’s own attitude towards the heroine, the very mood of the image of Marya should be taken into account, putting her mysticism in connection with the difficult circumstances of her personal life, which in turn gives a special psychological depth to the typification of this character. The novel hints to us at the reasons for Marya's religiosity. The heroine could become like this due to the severe mental torment that befell her and instilled in her the idea of suffering and self-sacrifice. Marya was ugly, she worried about it and suffered. Because of her appearance, she had to endure humiliation, the most terrible and insulting of which was the one she experienced during Anatoly Kuragin's matchmaking with her, when the groom arranged a date with her companion Burien at night.
What is a novel without women? He won't be interested. In relation to the main characters, we can judge their character, behavior, and inner world. War is war, but it ends someday. There are many women in the novel. Some images are positive, others negative.
One of the main female images beloved by the author is the image of Natasha Rostova. We watch her throughout the entire novel. Tolstoy constantly emphasizes that she is not a beauty. From a little girl who dances after a hunt, to an adult lady, wife and mother of the Bezukhov family. But she is beautiful with spiritual beauty. It was this kind of wife that Pierre needed, and not the cold beauty Helen Kuragina.
Some kind of inner fire burns in her. What is beauty? “...a vessel... in which there is emptiness, or a fire burning in the vessel...” Do you remember Zabolotsky’s poem “The Ugly Girl”? It was precisely in Natasha, as in a vessel, that this fire burned. And the reflections of this fire made her face so spiritual and alive. Therefore, she is so attractive to the opposite sex. Men like lively, smiling women, “laughing women”. How she danced after the hunt! Incendiary, selfless. The eyes are burning, the cheeks are flushed, the skirt is spinning like a top. Well, what man can resist here!
Yes, Natasha is wrong. And the arrogant and cold Prince Andrei does not forgive her. Or maybe Tolstoy did not specifically connect their destinies? Maybe he specifically gave her Pierre Bezukhov as a husband, this bear with the soul and heart of a child? He idolized her. Look how she blossomed with him, opened up like a woman. It seems to me that she would not be so happy with the prince.
Faith
The direct opposite of her is her older sister Vera. Her smile did not attract, but rather repelled. Children's laughter and squealing irritate her and prevent her from caring about herself.
It feels like Vera is a “foundling” in this family. She is not related to the Rostovs in spirit. Well, God apparently selects couples according to his image and likeness. He found the same husband for her. Two of a Kind.
Andrei Bolkonsky's sister is Princess Maria. If the prince can escape from his oppressive father to serve, then, alas, the girl cannot do this. And she is forced to endure it. She sacrifices her life for her father. For some reason, planting an inferiority complex in her, her father constantly humiliates her. But she also wants to be happy. She wants, like all women, a family, a husband, children.
Tolstoy describes her eyes in such a way that you don’t even pay attention to some of the flaws in her appearance. Moreover, as my mother said: “Beauty will fade, kindness will not deceive.” But she is very kind at heart. Her sacrifice finally finds a worthy recipient - Nikolai Rostov. He saves her, and she saves him.
Helen Kuragina
Here is the narcissistic soulless beauty Helen Kuragina. Dear painted doll without a soul, without a heart. Whether brother or sister, both are the same. Both are completely deceitful and inhumane. Someone else's life means nothing to them. She took it in passing and helped her brother deceive one person, Natasha. And ruin the lives of two people.
The second berry of the same field is Julie Kuragina, who became rich after the death of her brothers and became the richest bride. In order to somehow attract attention to herself, she put on a mask of decent melancholy. But one of the suitors, Boris, instinctively feels that she is “overacting” and turns away from her.
I remember the film adaptation of the novel “War and Peace” directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. Lyudmila Savelyeva played Natasha Rostova. I’m writing an essay and I see her in the Amazon galloping on the hunt. And then her fiery dance after the hunt. They picked the right actress for the character. For me, this is the best image of Natasha Rostova.
Several interesting essays
- Essay on the painting The Cat on the Window by Willie James, grade 4
An artist always wants to depict on canvas something fabulous, mystical, or a moment from real life. Looking at the work of artist Wiley James, a mysterious black cat sits and looks out of the window at the rooftops
War and Peace is one of those books that cannot be forgotten. Its very name contains all of human life. And “War and Peace” is a model of the structure of the world, the universe, which is why the symbol of this world appears in Part IV of the novel (Pierre Bezukhov’s dream) - a globe. “This globe was a living, oscillating ball, without dimensions.” Its entire surface consisted of drops tightly compressed together. The drops moved and moved, now merging, now separating. Each tried to spread out, to capture the largest space, but the others, shrinking, sometimes destroyed each other, sometimes merged into one. “This is life,” said the old teacher who once taught Pierre geography. “How simple and clear this is,” thought Pierre, “how I couldn’t have known this before.”
“How simple and clear it all is,” we repeat, rereading our favorite pages of the novel. And these pages, like drops on the surface of a globe, connecting with others, form part of a single whole. So, episode by episode, we move towards the infinite and eternal, which is human life. But the writer Tolstoy would not have been a philosopher Tolstoy if he had not shown us the polar sides of existence: life in which form predominates, and life that contains the fullness of content. It is from these Tolstoy ideas about life that we will consider female images, in which the author highlights their special purpose - to be a wife and mother.
For Tolstoy, the world of family is the basis of human society, where a woman plays a unifying role. If a man is characterized by an intense intellectual and spiritual search, then a woman, having a more subtle intuition, lives by feelings and emotions.
The clear contrast between good and evil in the novel was naturally reflected in the system of female images. The contrast of internal and external images as a favorite technique of the writer is indicative of such heroines as Helen Kuragina, Natasha Rostova and Marya Bolkonskaya.
Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal emptiness, fossilization. Tolstoy constantly mentions her “monotonous”, “unchanging” smile and “antique beauty of her body”; she resembles a beautiful soulless statue. Helen Scherer enters the salon “noisily wearing her sick white robe, decorated with ivy and moss,” as a symbol of soullessness and coldness. It is not for nothing that the author does not mention her eyes, while Natasha’s “brilliant”, “shining” eyes and Marya’s “radiant” eyes always attract our attention.
Helen personifies immorality and depravity. The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not know any moral standards, living according to the inexorable law of fulfilling their insignificant desires. Helen marries only for her own enrichment. She constantly cheats on her husband, since the animal nature prevails in her nature. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless. “I’m not such a fool as to have children,” she says blasphemous words. Helene, in front of the whole society, is busy organizing her personal life while still being Pierre’s wife, and her mysterious death is due to the fact that she got entangled in her own intrigues.
Such is Helen Kuragina with her disdainful attitude towards the sacrament of marriage, towards the duties of a wife. It is not difficult to guess that Tolstoy embodied the worst feminine qualities in her and contrasted her with the images of Natasha and Marya.
One cannot help but say about Sonya. The peaks of Marya’s spiritual life and the “peaks of feeling” of Natasha are inaccessible to her. She is too down to earth, too immersed in everyday life. She is also given joyful moments of life, but these are only moments. Sonya cannot compare with Tolstoy’s favorite heroines, but this is rather her misfortune than her fault, the author tells us. She is a “barren flower,” but perhaps the life of a poor relative and the feeling of constant dependence did not allow her to blossom in her soul.
One of the main characters in the novel is Natasha Rostova. Tolstoy draws Natasha in development, he traces Natasha’s life in different years, and, naturally, over the years her feelings, her perception of life change.
We first meet Natasha when this little thirteen-year-old girl, “black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive,” runs into the living room and runs into her mother. And with her image the theme of “living life” enters the novel. What Tolstoy always appreciated in Natasha was the fullness of life, the desire to live interestingly, fully and, most importantly, every minute. Overflowing with optimism, she strives to keep up with everything: to console Sonya, childishly declare her love for Boris, argue about the type of ice cream, sing the romance “The Key” with Nikolai, and dance with Pierre. Tolstoy writes that “the essence of her life is love.” It combines the most valuable qualities of a person: love, poetry, life. Of course, we don’t believe her when she “in all seriousness” tells Boris: “Forever... Until my death.” “And, taking him by the arm, she, with a happy face, quietly walked next to him into the sofa.”
All of Natasha’s actions are determined by the demands of her nature, and not by rational choice, therefore she is not just a participant in a certain private life, for she belongs not to one family circle, but to the world of a general movement. And perhaps Tolstoy had this in mind when he spoke about the historical characters in the novel: “Only unconscious activity bears fruit, and the person playing a role in a historical event never understands its significance. If he tries to understand it, he is struck by its futility.” She, without trying to understand his role, thereby already defines it for herself and for others. “The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one is she, and there everything is - happiness, hope, light; the other half is everything where she is not, there is all despondency and darkness,” Prince Andrei will say four years later. But while she is sitting at the birthday table, she looks at Boris with a childish look of love. “This same look of hers sometimes turned to Pierre, and under the gaze of this funny, lively girl he wanted to laugh, not knowing why.” This is how Natasha reveals herself in unconscious movement, and we see her naturalness, that quality that will constitute an unchanging property of her life.
Natasha Rostova's first ball became the place of her meeting with Andrei Bolkonsky, which led to a clash of their life positions, which had a huge impact on both of them.
During the ball, she is not interested in either the sovereign or all the important persons to whom Peronskaya points out; she does not pay attention to court intrigues. She is waiting for joy and happiness. Tolstoy clearly distinguishes her from everyone present at the ball, contrasting her with secular society. Enthusiastic, transfixed with excitement, Natasha is described by L. Tolstoy with love and tenderness. His ironic remarks about the adjutant-manager asking everyone to step aside “somewhere else,” about “some lady,” about the vulgar fuss around the rich bride present us with a petty and false world, while Natasha among all of them is shown as the only natural being. Tolstoy contrasts the lively, ebullient, always unexpected Natasha with the cold Helen, a secular woman who lives according to established rules and never commits rash acts. “Natasha’s bare neck and arms were thin and ugly in comparison with Helen’s shoulders. Her shoulders were thin, her breasts were vague, her arms were thin; but Helen already had a varnish on her from all the thousands of glances sliding over her body,” and this makes it seem vulgar. This impression is strengthened when we remember that Helen is soulless and empty, that in her body, as if carved from marble, lives a stone soul, greedy, without a single movement of feeling. Here Tolstoy’s attitude towards secular society is revealed, Natasha’s exclusivity is once again emphasized.
What did the meeting with Andrei Bolkonsky give to Natasha? As a truly natural being, although she did not think about it, she strove to create a family and could find happiness only in the family. The meeting with Prince Andrei and his proposal created the conditions for achieving her ideal. As she prepared to start a family, she was happy. However, happiness was not destined to last long. Prince Andrei strove for Natasha, but did not understand her, he did not have a natural instinct, so he postponed the wedding, not understanding that Natasha should love constantly, that she should be happy every minute. He himself provoked her betrayal.
Portrait characteristics make it possible to expose the main qualities of her character. Natasha is cheerful, natural, spontaneous. The older she gets, the faster she turns from a girl into a girl, the more she wants to be admired, to be loved, to be the center of attention. Natasha loves herself and believes that everyone should love her, she says about herself: “What a charm this Natasha is.” And everyone really admires her, loves her. Natasha is like a ray of light in a boring and gray secular society.
Emphasizing Natasha’s ugliness, Tolstoy asserts: it’s not a matter of external beauty. The riches of her inner nature are important: talent, the ability to understand, to come to the rescue, sensitivity, subtle intuition. Everyone loves Natasha, everyone wishes her well, because Natasha herself does only good to everyone. Natasha lives not with her mind, but with her heart. The heart rarely deceives. And although Pierre says that Natasha “doesn’t deign to be smart,” she was always smart and understood people. When Nikolenka, having lost almost the Rostovs’ entire fortune, comes home, Natasha, without realizing it, sings only for her brother. And Nikolai, listening to her voice, forgets about everything about his loss, about the difficult conversation with his father that awaits him, he only listens to the wonderful sound of her voice and thinks: “What is this?.. What happened to her? How is she singing these days?.. Well, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother." And Nikolai is not the only one who is enchanted by her voice. After all, Natasha’s voice had extraordinary merits. “In her voice there was that virginity, pristineness, that ignorance of one’s own strengths and that still undeveloped velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed that it was impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.”
Natasha understands Denisov very well, who proposed to her. She desires him and understands that “he didn’t mean to say it, but he accidentally said it.” Natasha has an art that is not given to everyone. She knows how to be compassionate. When Sonya roared, Natasha, not knowing the reason for her friend’s tears, “opened her big mouth and became completely bad, roared like a child... and only because Sonya was crying.” Natasha’s sensitivity and subtle intuition “didn’t work” only once. Natasha, so smart and insightful, did not understand Anatoly Kuragin and Helen and paid dearly for the mistake.
Natasha is the embodiment of love, love is the essence of her character.
Natasha is a patriot. Without thinking, she gives all the carts to the wounded, leaving things behind, and does not imagine that she could do anything differently in this situation.
The Russian people are close to Natasha. She loves folk songs, traditions, music. From all this we can conclude that the passionate, lively, loving, patriotic Natasha is capable of feats. Tolstoy makes it clear to us that Natasha will follow the Decembrist Pierre to Siberia. Isn't this a feat?
We meet Princess Marya Bolkonskaya from the first pages of the novel. Ugly and rich. Yes, she was ugly, and even very bad-looking, but this was in the opinion of strangers, distant people who hardly knew her. All those few who loved her and were loved by her knew and caught her beautiful and radiant gaze. Princess Marya herself did not know all his charm and strength. This gaze itself illuminated everything around with the light of warm love and tenderness. Prince Andrei often caught this look on himself, Julie recalled in her letters the meek, calm look of Princess Marya, which, according to Julie, was missing from her, and Nikolai Rostov fell in love with the princess precisely for this look. But when she thought about herself, the sparkle in Marya’s eyes dimmed and went somewhere deep into her soul. Her eyes became the same: sad and, most importantly, frightened, making her ugly, sickly face even uglier.
Marya Bolkonskaya, daughter of General-in-Chief Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, lived constantly on the Bald Mountains estate. She had no friends or girlfriends. Only Julie Karagina wrote to her, thereby bringing joy and variety to the dull, monotonous life of the princess. The father himself raised his daughter: he gave her algebra and geometry lessons. But what did these lessons give her? How could she understand anything, feeling the gaze and breath of her father above her, whom she feared and loved more than anything in the world. The princess respected him and was in awe of him and of everything his hands had done. The main consolation and, perhaps, teacher was religion: in prayer she found peace, help, and a solution to all problems. All the complex laws of human activity were concentrated for Princess Marya in one simple rule - a lesson in love and self-affirmation. She lives like this: she loves her father, brother, daughter-in-law, her companion, the Frenchwoman Mademoiselle Burien. But sometimes Princess Marya catches herself thinking about earthly love, about earthly passion. The princess is afraid of these thoughts like fire, but they arise, arise because she is a person and, be that as it may, a sinful person, like everyone else.
And so Prince Vasily comes to Bald Mountains with his son Anatoly to woo. Probably, in her secret thoughts, Princess Marya had long been waiting for just such a future husband: handsome, noble, kind.
Old Prince Bolkonsky invites his daughter to decide her own fate. And, probably, she would have made a fatal mistake by agreeing to the marriage if she had not accidentally seen Anatole hugging Mademoiselle Burien. Princess Marya refuses Anatoly Kuragin, refuses because she decides to live only for her father and her nephew.
The princess does not accept Natasha Rostova when she and her father come to meet the Bolkonskys. She treats Natasha with some internal hostility. She probably loves her brother too much, values his freedom, is afraid that some completely sensitive woman might lead him away, take him away, win his love. And the terrible word “stepmother”? This alone already inspires hostility and disgust.
Princess Marya in Moscow asks Pierre Bezukhov about Natasha Rostova. “Who is this girl and how do you find her?” She asks to tell “the whole truth.” Pierre feels "Princess Marya's ill will towards her future daughter-in-law." She really wants “Pierre to disapprove of Prince Andrei’s choice.”
Pierre doesn't know how to answer this question. “I absolutely don’t know what kind of girl this is, I just can’t analyze her. She’s charming,” says Pierre.
But this answer did not satisfy Princess Marya.
“Is she smart? - asked the princess.
Pierre thought about it.
“I think not,” he said, “but yes.” She doesn’t deign to be smart.”
“Princess Marya again shook her head disapprovingly,” notes Tolstoy.
All Tolstoy's heroes fall in love. Princess Marya Bolkonskaya falls in love with Nikolai Rostov. Having fallen in love with Rostov, the princess transforms during a meeting with him so that Mademoiselle Bourrienne almost does not recognize her: “chest, feminine notes” appear in her voice, and grace and dignity appear in her movements. “For the first time, all that pure spiritual inner work that she had lived until now came out” and made the heroine’s face beautiful. Finding herself in a difficult situation, she accidentally meets Nikolai Rostov, and he helps her cope with the intractable peasants and leave Bald Mountains. Princess Marya loves Nikolai not at all the way Sonya loved him, who constantly needed to do something and sacrifice something. And not like Natasha, who needed her loved one to just be there, smile, rejoice and speak loving words to her. Princess Marya loves quietly, calmly, happily. And this happiness is increased by the consciousness that she finally fell in love, and fell in love with a kind, noble, honest man.
And Nikolai sees and understands all this. Fate more and more often pushes them towards each other. A meeting in Voronezh, an unexpected letter from Sonya, releasing Nikolai from all obligations and promises made by Sonya: what is this if not the dictates of fate?
In the fall of 1814, Nikolai Rostov married Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. Now she has what she dreamed of: a family, a beloved husband, children.
But Princess Marya did not change: she was still the same, only now Countess Marya Rostova. She tried to understand Nikolai in everything, she wanted, really wanted to love Sonya but could not. She loved her children very much. And she was very upset when she realized that something was missing in her feelings for her nephew. She still lived for others, trying to love them all with the highest, Divine love. Sometimes Nikolai, looking at his wife, was horrified by the thought of what would happen to him and his children if Countess Marya died. He loved her more than life itself, and they were happy.
Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova become wonderful wives. Not everything in Pierre’s intellectual life is accessible to Natasha, but in her soul she understands his actions and strives to help her husband in everything. Princess Marya captivates Nicholas with spiritual wealth, which is not given to his simple nature. Under the influence of his wife, his unbridled temper softens, for the first time he realizes his rudeness towards men. Harmony in family life, as we see, is achieved where husband and wife seem to complement and enrich each other, forming a single whole. In the Rostov and Bezukhov families, mutual misunderstandings and inevitable conflicts are resolved through reconciliation. Love reigns here.
Marya and Natasha are wonderful mothers. However, Natasha is more concerned about the health of the children, and Marya penetrates into the child’s character and takes care of his spiritual and moral education.
Tolstoy endows the heroines with the most valuable qualities, in his opinion - the ability to subtly feel the mood of loved ones, share other people's grief, and selflessly love their family.
A very important quality of Natasha and Marya is naturalness, artlessness. They are not able to play a predetermined role, do not depend on the opinions of strangers, and do not live according to the laws of the world. At her first big ball, Natasha stands out precisely because of her sincerity in expressing her feelings. Princess Marya, at the decisive moment of her relationship with Nikolai Rostov, forgets that she wanted to remain aloof and polite, and their conversation goes beyond the scope of small talk: “the distant, impossible suddenly became close, possible and inevitable.”
Despite the similarity of their best moral qualities, Natasha and Marya are, in essence, completely different, almost opposite natures. Natasha lives excitedly, seizes every moment, she does not have enough words to express the fullness of her feelings, the heroine enjoys dancing, hunting, and singing. She is highly endowed with love for people, openness of soul, and talent for communication.
Marya also lives by love, but there is a lot of meekness, humility, and self-sacrifice in her. She often rushes in thoughts from earthly life to other spheres. “The soul of Countess Marya,” writes Tolstoy in the epilogue, “strove for the infinite, eternal and perfect, and therefore could never be at peace.”
Leo Tolstoy saw the ideal of a woman, and most importantly, a wife, in Princess Marya. Princess Marya does not live for herself: she wants to make and does make her husband and children happy. But she herself is happy, her happiness consists in love for her neighbors, their joy and well-being, which, however, should be the happiness of every woman.
Tolstoy resolved the issue of a woman’s place in society in his own way: a woman’s place in the family. Natasha has created a good, strong family; there is no doubt that good children will grow up in her family, who will become full-fledged members of society.
In Tolstoy's work, the world appears multifaceted; here there is a place for the most diverse, sometimes opposing characters. The writer conveys to us his love for life, which appears in all its charm and completeness. And looking at the female characters in the novel, we are once again convinced of this.
“How simple and clear it all is,” we are once again convinced, turning our gaze to the globe, where there are no longer drops destroying each other, but they have all merged together, making up one big and bright world, as at the very beginning - in the Rostov house . And in this world remain Natasha and Pierre, Nikolai and Princess Marya with the little Prince Bolkonsky, and “it is necessary to join hand in hand with as many people as possible to resist the general catastrophe.
Literature
1. Newspaper “Literature” No. 41, p. 4, 1996
2. Newspaper “Literature” No. 12, pp. 2, 7, 11, 1999
3. Newspaper “Literature” No. 1, p. 4, 2002
4. E. G. Babaev “Leo Tolstoy and Russian journalism of his era.”
5. “The best exam essays.”
6. 380 best school essays.”
