Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich
Lev Tolstoy
in Yasnaya Polyana (1908).
photographic portrait
works by S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky
Member of the defense of Sevastopol. Enlightener, publicist, religious thinker, his authoritative opinion was the reason for the emergence of a new religious and moral trend - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900).
A writer who, during his lifetime, was recognized as the head of Russian literature. The work of Leo Tolstoy marked a new stage in Russian and world realism, acting as a bridge between the classic novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century.
Leo Tolstoy had a strong influence on the evolution of European humanism, as well as on the development of realistic traditions in world literature.
The works of Leo Tolstoy were repeatedly filmed and staged in the USSR and abroad; his plays have been staged all over the world.
The most famous works of Tolstoy are the novels War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection, the autobiographical trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, the stories The Cossacks, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Kreutzerov sonata”, “Hadji Murad”, a series of essays “Sevastopol Tales”, dramas “The Living Corpse” and “The Power of Darkness”, autobiographical religious and philosophical works “Confession” and “What is my faith?” and etc.
Tolstoy's views on the family and the family in Tolstoy's work
Leo Tolstoy, both in his personal life and in his work, assigned the central role to the family. According to the writer, the main institution of human life is not the state or the church, but the family.
L. N. Tolstoy tells the tale of the cucumber
grandchildren Ilyusha and Sonya, 1909, Krekshino,
photo by V. G. Chertkov.
Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya in the future - the last wife of Sergei Yesenin
From the very beginning of his creative activity, Tolstoy was absorbed in thoughts about the family and dedicated his first work, Childhood, to this. Three years later, in 1855, he writes the story "Marker's Notes", where the writer's craving for gambling and women can already be seen.
The same is reflected in his novel "Family Happiness", in which the relationship between a man and a woman is strikingly similar to the marital relationship between Tolstoy himself and Sofya Andreevna.
During the period of happy family life (1860s), which created a stable atmosphere, spiritual and physical balance and became a source of poetic inspiration, two of the writer's greatest works were written: "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina".
But if in "War and Peace" Tolstoy firmly defends the value of family life, being convinced of the fidelity of the ideal, then in "Anna Karenina" he already expresses doubts about its attainability. When relations in his personal family life became more difficult, these aggravations were expressed in such works as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, The Devil and Father Sergius.
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy paid great attention to the family. His reflections are not limited to the details of marital relations. In the trilogy "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth", the author gave a vivid artistic description of the world of a child, in whose life an important role is played by the child's love for his parents, and vice versa - the love he receives from them.
In War and Peace, Tolstoy has already most fully revealed the different types of family relationships and love. And in "Family Happiness" and "Anna Karenina" various aspects of love in the family are simply lost behind the power of "eros". Critic and philosopher N. N. Strakhov after the release of the novel "War and Peace" noted that all of Tolstoy's previous works can be classified as preliminary studies, culminating in the creation of a "family chronicle".
How often Tolstoy uses the word family, family to designate the house of the Rostovs! What a warm light and comfort emanates from this, such a familiar and kind word to everyone! Behind this word - peace, harmony, love.
How are the Bolkonskys' house and the Rostovs' house similar?
(First of all, a sense of family, spiritual kinship, a patriarchal way of life (general feelings of grief or joy are seized not only by family members, but even by their servants: “The Rostov lackeys joyfully rushed to take off his (Pierre) cloak and take a stick and a hat”, “Nikolai takes money from Gavrila for a cabman "; the Rostov valet is just as devoted to the Rostov house as Alpatych is to the Bolkonsky house. "The Rostov family", "Bolkonsky", "Rostov House"; "Bolkonsky's estate" - already in these definitions the feeling of unity is obvious: " On Nikolin's day, on the prince's name day, all of Moscow was at the entrance of his (Bolkonsky) house ... ". "The prince's house was not what is called "light", but it was such a small circle, which, although it was not heard in the city, but in which it was most flattering to be accepted ... ").
Name the distinguishing feature of the Bolkonsky and Rostov houses.
(Hospitality is a hallmark of these houses: “Even in Otradnoye, up to 400 guests gathered”, in Lysy Gory - up to a hundred guests four times a year. Natasha, Nikolai, Petya are honest, sincere, frank with each other; they open their souls to their parents, hoping for complete mutual understanding (Natasha - to his mother about self-love; Nikolai - to his father even about losing 43 thousand; Petya - to everyone at home about the desire to go to war ...); Andrey and Marya are friendly (Andrey - to his father about his wife). Both families are very different care of parents about children: Rostova - the eldest hesitates between the choice - carts for the wounded or family heirlooms (future material security of children). Son - a warrior - mother's pride. She is engaged in raising children: tutors, balls, trips to society, youth evenings, Natasha's singing , music, preparation for studying at Petit University, plans for their future family, children.The Rostovs and Bolkonskys love children more than themselves: Rostova - the eldest cannot stand the death of her husband and younger Petit; old man Bolkonsky loves children passionately and reverently , even his strictness and exactingness come only from the desire for good for children.)
Why is the personality of the old man Bolkonsky interesting to Tolstoy and to us, readers?
(Bolkonsky attracts both Tolstoy and the modern reader with his originality. “An old man with keen intelligent eyes”, “with a gleam of intelligent and young eyes”, “inspires a sense of respect and even fear”, “was harsh and invariably demanding.” A friend of Kutuzov, he even in his youth he received general-in-chief. And disgraced, he did not cease to be interested in politics. His energetic mind requires an exit. Nikolai Andreevich, honoring only two human virtues: "activity and mind", "was constantly busy writing his memoirs, then calculations from higher mathematics, turning snuffboxes on the machine, then working in the garden and observing buildings ... ". "He himself was engaged in raising his daughter. " No wonder Andrei has an insistent insistence on communicating with his father, whose mind he appreciates and whose analytical abilities never cease to amaze. Proud and adamant, the prince asks his son “to hand over the notes... to the sovereign after... my death.” And for the Academy, he prepared a prize for the one who writes the history of Suvorov’s wars n ... Here are my remarks, after me read for yourself, you will find something useful.
He creates a militia, arms people, tries to be useful, to apply his military experience in practice. Nikolai Andreevich sees with his heart the sacredness of his son and himself helps him in a difficult conversation about his wife and unborn child.
And the year unfinished by the old prince to test the feelings of Andrei and Natasha is also an attempt to protect the son’s feelings from accidents and troubles: “There was a son whom it was a pity to give to a girl.”
The old prince was engaged in the upbringing and education of children himself, not trusting and not entrusting this to anyone.)
Why is Bolkonsky demanding of his daughter to the point of despotism?
(The key to the puzzle is in the phrase of Nikolai Andreevich himself: “But I don’t want you to look like our stupid young ladies.” He considers idleness and superstition to be the source of human vices. And the main condition for activity is order. A father who is proud of his son’s mind knows that between Marya and Andrey there is not only complete mutual understanding, but also sincere friendship based on the unity of views... Thoughts ... He understands how rich the spiritual world of his daughter is, knows how beautiful she can be in moments of emotional excitement. Therefore, it is so painful for him the arrival and courtship of the Kuragins, that "stupid, heartless breed.")
When and how will paternal pride manifest itself in Princess Marya?
(She will be able to refuse Anatole Kuragin, whom her father brought to marry the Bolkonskys, she will indignantly reject the patronage of the French General Roma; she will be able to suppress her pride in the scene of farewell to the bankrupt Nikolai Rostov: “do not deprive me of your friendship.” She will even say with her father’s phrase: “I it will hurt.)
How is the Bolkonsky breed manifested in Prince Andrei?
(Like his father. Andrey will be disappointed in the world and go into the army. The son will want to realize his father’s dream of a perfect military charter, but Andrey’s work will not be appreciated. outstanding officer. The courage and personal courage of the young Bolkonsky in the battle of Austerlitz do not lead the hero to the heights of personal glory, and participation in the battle of Shengraben convinces that true heroism is modest, and the hero is outwardly ordinary. Therefore, it is so bitter to see Captain Tushin, who, according to Andrey's conviction, "we owe the success of the day," at a meeting of officers ridiculed and punished.Only Andrey will stand up for him, be able to go against the general opinion.
Andrey's activity is as tireless as his father's work... Work in the Speransky commission, an attempt to draw up and approve his plan for the deployment of troops at the Shengraben, the liberation of the peasants, and the improvement of their living conditions. But during the war, the son, like his father, sees the main interest in the general course of military affairs.)
In what scenes will the feeling of fatherhood manifest itself with particular force in the old man Bolkonsky?
(Nikolai Andreevich does not trust anyone, not only fate, but even the upbringing of his children. With what “outward calmness and inner malice” does he agree to Andrei’s marriage to Natasha; the impossibility of being separated from Princess Marya pushes him to desperate acts, malicious, bilious: with the groom will tell his daughter: "... there is nothing to disfigure yourself - and she is so bad." By courtship of the Kuragins, he was offended for his daughter. The insult is the most painful, because it did not apply to him, to the daughter whom he loved more than himself.")
Reread the lines about how the old man reacts to his son's declaration of love for Rostova: he screams, then "plays a subtle diplomat"; the same methods as in the courtship of the Kuragins to Marya.
How will Marya embody her father's ideal of a family?
(She will become paternally demanding of her children, observing their behavior, encouraging good deeds and punishing evil ones. A wise wife, she will be able to instill in Nikolai the need to consult with herself, and noticing that his sympathies are on the side of his youngest daughter, Natasha She will reproach herself for not enough, as it seems to her, love for her nephew, but we know that Marya is too pure in soul and honest, that she never betrayed the memory of her beloved brother, that for her Nikolenka is a continuation of the prince Andrey She will call her eldest son “Andryusha”.)
As Tolstoy proves his idea, there is no moral core in parents - will there not be one in children?
(Vasil Kuragin is the father of three children, but all his dreams come down to one thing: to attach them more profitably, to get away with it. All Kuragins endure the shame of matchmaking easily. with a beautiful smile, she condescendingly treated the idea of \u200b\u200brelatives and friends to marry her to Pierre. He, Anatole, is only slightly annoyed by the unsuccessful attempt to take Natasha away. Only once will their "restraint" change them: Helen will scream from fear of being killed by Pierre, and her brother will cry like woman, having lost her leg. Their calmness - from indifference to everyone except themselves: Anatole "had the ability of calmness, precious to the world, and unchanging confidence." like a shot: "Where you are, there is debauchery, evil."
They are alien to Tolstoy's ethics. Egoists are closed only on themselves. Empty flowers. Nothing will be born from them, because in a family one must be able to give warmth and care to others. They only know how to take: “I’m not a fool to give birth to children” (Helen), “We must take a girl while she is still a flower in a bud” (Anatole).)
Arranged marriages... Will they become a family in Tolstoy's sense of the word?
(The dream of Drubetsky and Berg came true: they married successfully. In their houses everything is the same as in all rich houses. Everything is as it should be: comme il faut. But there is no rebirth of heroes. There are no feelings. The soul is silent.)
But the true feeling of love regenerates Tolstoy's favorite heroes. Describe it.
(Even the “thinking” Prince Andrei, in love with Natasha, seems different to Pierre: “Prince Andrei seemed and was a completely different, new person.”
For Andrei, Natasha's love is everything: "happiness, hope, light." "This feeling is stronger than me." "I wouldn't believe anyone who told me that I could love like that." "I can't help but love the light, it's not my fault", "never experienced anything like it." “Prince Andrei, with a radiant, enthusiastic and renewed face, stopped in front of Pierre ...”
Natasha wholeheartedly responds to Andrei's love: "But this, this has never happened to me." "I can't bear the separation" ...
Natasha comes to life after Andrei's death under the rays of Pierre's love: “The whole face, gait, look, voice - everything suddenly changed in her. Unexpected for her, the power of life, hopes for happiness surfaced and demanded satisfaction”, “Change ... surprised Princess Marya”.
Nikolai "got closer and closer to his wife, discovering new spiritual treasures in her every day." He is happy with the spiritual superiority of his wife over him and strives to be better.
The hitherto unknown happiness of love for her husband and children makes Mary even more attentive, kinder and more tender: “I would never, never have believed,” she whispered to herself, “that you can be so happy.”
And Marya worries because of her husband’s temper, she worries painfully, to tears: “She never cried from pain or annoyance, but always from sadness and pity. And when she cried, her radiant eyes took on an irresistible charm. In her face, “suffering and loving,” Nikolai now finds answers to his questions that torment him, is proud of him and is afraid of losing her.
After the separation, Natasha meets Pierre; her conversation with her husband takes a new path, contrary to all the laws of logic... Already because at the same time they were talking about completely different subjects... This was the surest sign that "they fully understand each other.")
Love gives vigilance to their souls, strength to their feelings.
They can sacrifice everything for the beloved, for the happiness of others. Pierre belongs undividedly to the family, and she belongs to him. Natasha leaves all her hobbies. She has something more important, the most precious - family. And the main talent is important for the family - the talent of care, understanding, love. They are: Pierre, Natasha, Marya, Nikolai - the embodiment of family thought in the novel.
But the epithet "family" in Tolstoy is much broader and deeper. Can you prove it?
(Yes, the family circle is Raevsky’s battery; father and children are Captain Tushin and his batteries; “everything is like the children looked”; the father of the soldiers is Kutuzov. And the girl Malashka Kutuzov is her grandfather. from Andrey about the death of Nikolai Andreevich, he will say that now he is the father for the prince. The soldiers stopped the words Kamensky - father to Kutuzov - father. "A son worried about the fate of the Motherland" - Bagration, who in a letter to Arakcheev will express his son's concern and love to Russia.
And the Russian army is also a family, with a special, deep sense of brotherhood, unity in the face of a common misfortune. The spokesman for the people's attitude in the novel is Platon Karataev. He, with his fatherly, paternal attitude towards everyone, became for Pierre and for us the ideal of serving people, the ideal of kindness, conscientiousness, a model of “moral” life - life according to God, life “for everyone”.
Therefore, together with Pierre, we ask Karataev: “What would he approve of?” And we hear Pierre’s answer to Natasha: “I would approve of our family life. He so desired to see beauty, happiness, tranquility in everything, and I would proudly show him us. It is in the family that Pierre comes to the conclusion: “... if vicious people are interconnected and constitute a force, then honest people only need to do the same. It's so simple.)
Perhaps, Pierre, brought up outside the family, did he place the family at the center of his future life?
(Amazing in him, a man, is childish conscience, sensitivity, the ability to heartily respond to the pain of another person and alleviate his suffering. “Pierre smiled his kind smile,” “Pierre sat awkwardly in the middle of the living room,” “he was shy.” He feels his mother’s despair who lost her child in burning Moscow; empathizes with the grief of Marya, who lost her brother; considers himself obliged to reassure Anatole and asks him to leave, and in the salon of Sherer and his wife, he will deny rumors about the escape of Natasha with Anatole. Therefore, the purpose of his public service is good, "active virtue".)
In what scenes of the novel is this property of Pierre's soul manifested most clearly?
(A big child, a child is called Pierre and Nikolai, and Andrei. Bolkonsky will entrust him, Pierre, with the secret of love for Natasha. He will be entrusted with Natasha, the bride. He will advise her to turn to him, Pierre, in difficult times. ", Pierre will be a real friend in the novel. It is with him that Natasha's aunt - Akhrosimova will consult regarding her beloved niece. But it is he, Pierre, who will introduce Andrei and Natasha at the first adult ball in her life. He will notice the confusion of Natasha's feelings, which no one invited dance, and ask his friend Andrey to engage her.)
What are the similarities and differences in the mental structure of Pierre and Natasha?
(The structure of the souls of Natasha and Pierre is in many ways similar. Pierre, in a confidential conversation with Andrei, confesses to a friend: “I feel that, besides me, spirits live above me and that there is truth in this world”, “we lived and will live forever there, in everything (he pointed to the sky)". Natasha "knows" that in a previous life everyone was angels. Pierre was the first and very keenly felt this connection (he is older) and involuntarily worried about Natasha's fate: he was happy and for some reason sad, when he listened to Andrei's confession of love for Rostova, he seemed to be afraid of something.
But after all, Natasha will also be afraid for herself and for Andrei: “How I am afraid for him and for myself, and for everything I am afraid ...” And Andrei’s feeling of love for her will be mixed with a sense of fear and responsibility for the fate of this girl.
This will not be the feeling of Pierre and Natasha. Love will revive their souls. There will be no place of doubt in the soul, everything will be filled with love.
But the insightful Tolstoy saw that even at the age of 13, Natasha, with her responsive to everything truly beautiful and kind soul, noted Pierre: at the table she looks from Boris Drubetskoy, whom she vowed to “love to the very end”, to Pierre; Pierre is the first adult man whom he invites to dance, it is for Pierre that the girl Natasha takes a fan and plays an adult out of herself. "I love him so much".
The "unchanging moral certainty" of Natasha and Pierre can be traced throughout the novel. “He did not want to curry favor with the public,” he built his life on internal personal foundations: hopes, aspirations, goals, which were based on the same family interest; Natasha does what her heart tells her to. In essence, Tolstoy emphasizes that "doing good" with his favorite characters means responding "purely intuitively, with heart and soul" to those around him. Natasha and Pierre feel, understand, “with their characteristic sensitivity of the heart,” the slightest falsehood. Natasha, at the age of 15, tells her brother Nikolai: "Don't be angry, but I know that you won't marry her (Sonya)." “Natasha, with her sensitivity, also noticed her brother’s condition”, “She knew how to understand what was ... in every Russian person”, Natasha “does not understand anything” in Pierre’s sciences, but attributes them to great importance. They never “use” anyone and call for only one type of connection - spiritual kinship. They truly blow it, experience it: cry, scream, laugh, share secrets, despair and again look for the meaning of life in caring for others.)
What is the significance of children in the Rostov and Bezukhov families?
(Children for people who are “non-family” are a cross, a burden, a burden. And only for family they are happiness, the meaning of life, life itself. hands of the children of Nikolai and Pierre! Remember the same expression on the face of Nikolai and his favorite - black-eyed Natasha? Remember with what love Natasha peers into her younger son's facial features, finding him similar to Pierre? Marya is happy in the family. None similar to happy we will not find family pictures in the Kuragins, Drubetskoys, Bergs, Karagins. Remember, Drubetskoy was “unpleasant to remember childhood love for Natasha”, and all the Rostovs are absolutely happy only at home: “Everyone screamed, talked, kissed Nikolai at the same time ", Here, at home, among relatives, Nikolai is happy as he has not been happy for a year and a half. The family world for Tolstoy's favorite heroes is the world of childhood. In the most difficult moments of their lives, Andrei and Nikolai remember their relatives: Andrei on Austerlitsky the field remembers the house, Marya; under the bullets - about the order of the father. The wounded Rostov, in moments of oblivion, sees his home and all his own. These heroes are living, understandable people. Their experiences, grief, joy cannot but touch.)
Is it possible to say that the heroes of the novel have a child's soul?
(They, the author's favorite heroes, have their own world, a high world of goodness and beauty, a pure children's world. Natasha and Nikolai transfer themselves to the world of a winter fairy tale on Christmas Eve. In a magical waking dream, 15-year-old Petya spends the last night in his life at the front Rostov. "Come on, our Matvevna," Tushin said to himself. "Matvevna" was imagined in his imagination by a cannon (large, extreme, old-fashioned casting ...). And the world of music also unites the heroes, elevating, spiritualizing them. Petya Rostov directs an invisible orchestra in a dream, "Princess Marya played the clavichord", Natasha is taught to sing by a famous Italian. Nikolai gets out of a moral impasse (losing to Dolokhov in 43 thousand!) Under the influence of his sister's singing. And books play an important role in the lives of these heroes. Andrey stocks up in Brunn "on a trip with books. Nikolai made it a rule not to buy a new book without first reading the old ones. We will see Marya, Natasha with a book in her hands, and never Helen.)
IV. Results.
Even the purest word "childish" is associated in Tolstoy with the word "family". “Rostov again entered this family children's world of his” ... “Rostov felt, as under the influence of these bright rays of Natasha's love, for the first time in a year and a half. On his soul and on his face bloomed that childish and pure smile, which he had never smiled since he left home. Pierre has a childlike smile. The childlike, enthusiastic face of Junker Nikolai Rostov.
The childishness of the soul (purity, naivety, naturalness), which a person preserves, is, according to Tolstoy, the heart - the guilt of morality, the essence of beauty in a person:
Andrey, on the Pratsenskaya height, with a banner in his hands, raises a soldier behind him: “Guys, go ahead! he shouted in a child's voice.
Childishly unhappy eyes will look at Andrei Kutuzov, having learned about the death of the elder Bolkonsky, his comrade-in-arms. Marya will respond with a childish expression of extreme resentment (tears) to her husband's outbursts of unreasonable anger.
They, these heroes, even have confidential, homely vocabulary. The word "darling" is pronounced by the Rostovs, and the Bolkonskys, and Tushin, and Kutuzov. Therefore, class partitions are broken, and the soldiers on the Raevsky battery accepted Pierre into their family and called him our master; Nikolai and Petya easily enter the officer family, the families of the young Rostovs - Natasha and Nikolai are very friendly. The family develops in them the best feelings - love and self-giving.
"People's Thought" in the novel "War and Peace". Historical plan in the novel. Images of Kutuzov and Napoleon. Connection in the novel of the personal and the general. The meaning of the image of Platon Karataev.
Target: to summarize throughout the novel the role of the people in history, the attitude of the author to the people.
During the classes
The lesson-lecture is conducted according to the plan with the recording of theses:
I. Gradual change and deepening of the idea and theme of the novel "War and Peace".
II. "The thought of the people" is the main idea of the novel.
1. The main conflicts of the novel.
2. Tearing off all kinds of masks from court and staff lackeys and drones.
3. "Russian soul" (The best part of the noble society in the novel. Kutuzov as the leader of the people's war).
4. Depiction of the moral greatness of the people and the liberation nature of the people's war of 1812.
III. Immortality of the novel "War and Peace".
In order for the work to be good,
one must love the main, basic idea in it.
In "War and Peace" I loved the thought of the people,
due to the War of 1812.
L. N. Tolstoy
Lecture material
L. N. Tolstoy, based on his statement, considered the “folk thought” to be the main idea of the novel “War and Peace”. This is a novel about the fate of the people, about the fate of Russia, about the people's feat, about the reflection of history in a person.
The main conflicts of the novel - Russia's struggle against Napoleonic aggression and the clash of the best part of the nobility, expressing national interests, with court lackeys and staff drones, pursuing selfish, selfish interests both in the years of peace and in the years of war - are connected with the theme of the people's war.
“I tried to write the history of the people,” said Tolstoy. The protagonist of the novel is the people; a people thrown into an alien to its interests, unnecessary and incomprehensible war of 1805, a people who rose in 1812 to defend the Motherland from foreign invaders and defeated in a just, liberation war a huge enemy army led by a hitherto invincible commander, a people united by a great goal - "clear your land from invasion."
There are more than a hundred mass scenes in the novel, over two hundred named people from the people act in it, but the significance of the image of the people is determined, of course, not by this, but by the fact that all important events in the novel are evaluated by the author from the people's point of view. The popular assessment of the war of 1805 is expressed by Tolstoy in the words of Prince Andrei: “Why did we lose the battle near Austerlitz? There was no need for us to fight there: we wanted to leave the battlefield as soon as possible. The people's assessment of the Battle of Borodino, when the hand of the strongest enemy in spirit was laid on the French, is expressed by the writer at the end of part I of the third volume of the novel: “The moral strength of the French, attacking army was exhausted. Not that victory, which is determined by picked up pieces of matter on sticks, called banners, and by the space on which the troops stood and are standing, but a moral victory, one that convinces the enemy of the moral superiority of his enemy and of his impotence, was won by the Russians under Borodin".
The "thought of the people" is present everywhere in the novel. We clearly feel it in that merciless "tearing off the masks" that Tolstoy resorts to when drawing the Kuragins, Rostopchin, Arakcheev, Benigsen, Drubetskoy, Julie Karagina and others. Their calm, luxurious life in St. Petersburg went on as before.
Often secular life is given through the prism of popular views. Remember the scene of the opera and ballet performance in which Natasha Rostova meets Helen and Anatole Kuragin (vol. II, part V, ch. 9-10). “After the village... it was all wild and surprising to her. ... - ... she felt ashamed of the actors, then funny for them. The performance is drawn as if an observant peasant with a healthy sense of beauty is watching him, surprised at how ridiculously the gentlemen are amused.
The “folk thought” is felt more vividly where heroes close to the people are depicted: Tushin and Timokhin, Natasha and Princess Marya, Pierre and Prince Andrei - they are all Russian in soul.
It is Tushin and Timokhin who are shown as the true heroes of the battle of Shengraben, the victory in the battle of Borodino, according to Prince Andrei, will depend on the feeling that is in him, in Timokhin and in every soldier. “Tomorrow, no matter what, we will win the battle!” - says Prince Andrei, and Timokhin agrees with him: “Here, your excellency, the truth, the truth is true.”
In many scenes of the novel, both Natasha and Pierre, who understood the “hidden warmth of patriotism” that was in the militias and soldiers on the eve and on the day of the Battle of Borodino, act as carriers of the popular feeling and “folk thought” in many scenes of the novel; Pierre, who, according to the servants, "forgave", is in captivity, and Prince Andrei, when he became "our prince" for the soldiers of his regiment.
Tolstoy depicts Kutuzov as a person who embodied the spirit of the people. Kutuzov is a truly popular commander. Expressing the needs, thoughts and feelings of the soldiers, he speaks during the review near Braunau, and during the Battle of Austerlitz, and during the liberation war of 1812. “Kutuzov,” writes Tolstoy, “with his whole Russian being knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt ...” During the war of 1812, all his efforts were directed towards one goal - to cleanse his native land from invaders. On behalf of the people, Kutuzov rejects Lauriston's proposal for a truce. He understands and repeatedly says that the Battle of Borodino is a victory; understanding, like no one else, the popular nature of the war of 1812, he supported the plan proposed by Denisov for the deployment of partisan operations. It was his understanding of the feelings of the people that made the people choose this disgraceful old man as the leader of the people's war against the will of the tsar.
Also, the “folk thought” was fully manifested in the depiction of the heroism and patriotism of the Russian people and the army during the Patriotic War of 1812. Tolstoy shows the extraordinary stamina, courage and fearlessness of the soldiers and the best part of the officers. He writes that not only Napoleon and his generals, but all the soldiers of the French army experienced in the battle of Borodino "a feeling of horror before the enemy, who, having lost half of the army, stood just as menacingly at the end as at the beginning of the battle."
The War of 1812 was not like other wars. Tolstoy showed how the "club of the people's war" rose, drew numerous images of partisans, and among them - the memorable image of the peasant Tikhon Shcherbaty. We see the patriotism of civilians who left Moscow, abandoned and destroyed their property. “They went because for the Russian people there could be no question whether it would be good or bad under the control of the French in Moscow. You can’t be under the control of the French: that was the worst of all.”
So, reading the novel, we are convinced that the writer judges the great events of the past, the life and customs of various sections of Russian society, individual people, war and peace from the standpoint of popular interests. And this is the “folk idea” that Tolstoy loved in his novel.
In the novel “War and Peace”, L. N. Tolstoy singled out and considered “folk thought” to be more significant. It is most clearly expressed in those parts of the work that tell about the war. In the depiction of the “world”, the “family thought” prevails, which also plays a very important role in the novel, because the family is thought of by the author as the foundation of the foundations. The novel is built as a story of families. Family members inherit the traits of the breed. The family, according to Tolstoy, should be strengthened, because through the family a person joins the people.
Three families stand at the center of the novel: the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Kuragins. Many of the events described in the novel are shown by Tolstoy through the history of these families.
The patriarchal Rostov family arouses special sympathy for the author. For the first time we meet with its members at the name day of Countess Rostova. The first thing that is felt here is the atmosphere of love and kindness. "Love air" reigns in this family.
The elder Rostovs are simple and kind people. They are glad to everyone who enters their house, and do not judge a person by the amount of money. Their daughter Natasha conquers with her sincerity, and the youngest son Petya is a kind and childishly naive boy. Here parents understand their children, and children sincerely love their parents. Together they experience troubles and joys. Getting acquainted with them, the reader understands that this is where real happiness lies. Therefore, Sonya feels good in the Rostovs' house. Although she is not their own daughter, they love her like their children.
Even courtyard people: Tikhon, Praskovya Savishna - are full members of this family. They love and respect their masters, live with their problems and worries.
Only Vera - the eldest daughter of the Rostovs - does not fit into the overall picture. He is a cold and selfish person. “The countess has done something,” says Father Rostov, speaking of Vera. Apparently, the influence of Princess Drubetskaya, who used to be the best friend of Countess Rostova, affected the upbringing of the eldest daughter. And, indeed, Vera is much more like the son of Countess Boris Drubetskoy than, for example, her sister Natasha.
Tolstoy shows this family not only in joy, but also in grief. They remain in Moscow until the last minute, although Napoleon is advancing on the city. When they finally decide to leave, they face the question of what to do - leave things, despite the value of many of them, and give carts to the wounded or leave without thinking about other people. Natasha solves the problem. She says, or rather, screams with a distorted face, that it is a shame to leave the wounded to the enemy. Not a single thing, even the most valuable thing, can equal a person's life. Rostovs leave without things, And we understand that such a decision is natural for this family. They just couldn't have done otherwise.
Another appears in the novel, the Bolkonsky family. Tolstoy shows three generations of the Bolkonskys: the old Prince Nikolai Andreevich, his children - Prince Anrey and Princess Marya - and grandson Nikolenka. In the Bolkonsky family, from generation to generation they brought up such qualities as a sense of duty, patriotism, and nobility.
If the basis of the Rostov family is a feeling, then the defining line of the Bolkonskys is the mind. The old prince Bolkonsky is firmly convinced that there are "only two virtues in the world - activity and intelligence." He is a man who always follows his convictions. He works himself (sometimes he writes a military charter, then he studies the exact sciences with his daughter) and demands that the children not be lazy either. In the character of Prince Anrey, many features of his father's nature are preserved. He is also trying to find his way in life, to be useful to his country. It is the desire to work that leads him to work in the Speransky commission. Young Bolkonsky is a patriot, like his father. The old prince, having learned that Napoleon is going to Moscow, forgets his previous grievances and actively participates in the militia. Andrei, having lost faith in his "Toulon" under the sky of Austerlitz, promises himself not to take any more part in military campaigns. But during the war of 1812, he defends his homeland and dies for it.
If in the Rostov family the relationship between children and parents is friendly and trusting, then with the Bolognas, at first glance, the situation is different. The old prince also sincerely loves Andrei and Marya. He worries about them. He notices, for example, that Andrei does not love his wife Liza. Having told his son about this, although he sympathizes with him, he immediately reminds him of his duty to his wife and family. The very type of relationship with the Bolkonskys is different than that of the Rostovs. The prince hides his feelings for the children. So, for example, with Marya he is always strict and sometimes speaks rudely to her. He reproaches his daughter for her inability to solve mathematical problems, sharply and directly tells her that she is ugly. Princess Mary suffered from such an attitude on the part of her father, because he diligently hid his love in her in the depths of his soul. Only before his death, the old prince realizes how dear his daughter is to him. In the last minutes of his life, he felt an inner kinship with her.
Marya is a special person in the Bolkonsky family. Despite a harsh upbringing, she did not harden. She loves her father, brother and nephew immensely. Moreover, she is ready to sacrifice herself for them, to give everything she has.
The third generation of the Bolkonskys is the son of Prince Andrei Nikolenka. In the epilogue of the novel, we see him as a child. But the author shows that he listens attentively to adults, some kind of work of the mind is going on in him. And, therefore, in this generation the precepts of the Bolkonskys about the active mind will not be forgotten.
A completely different type of family is the Kuragin family. They bring only trouble to Bolkonsky and Rostov. The head of the family - Prince Vasily - is a false and deceitful person. He lives in an atmosphere of intrigue and gossip. One of the main features of his character is greed. He also marries his daughter Helen to Pierre Bezukhov, because he is rich. The most important thing for Prince Kuragin in life is money. For their sake, he is ready to go to the crime.
The children of Prince Vasily are no better than their father. Pierre rightly remarks that they have such a "vile breed." Helen, unlike Princess Mary, is beautiful. But her beauty is outward brilliance. In Helen there is no spontaneity and openness of Natasha.
Helen is empty, selfish and deceitful in her soul. Marrying her nearly ruins Pierre's life. Pierre Bezukhov was convinced from his own experience that external beauty is not always the key to internal beauty and family happiness. A bitter feeling of disappointment, gloomy despondency, contempt for his wife, for life, for himself seized him some time after the wedding, when Helen's "mysteriousness" turned into spiritual emptiness, stupidity and depravity. Without thinking about anything, Helen arranges an affair between Anatole and Natasha Rostova. Anatole Kuragin - Helen's brother - causes a gap between Natasha and Andrei Bolkonsky. He, like his sister, is used to indulging his whims in everything, and therefore the fate of the girl he was going to take away from home does not bother him.
The Kuragin family is opposed to the Rostov and Bolkonsky families. On the pages of the novel, we see its degradation and destruction. As for the Bolkonskys and Rostovs, Tolstoy rewards them with family happiness. They experienced many troubles and difficulties, but managed to keep the best that was in them - honesty, sincerity, kindness. In the finale, we see the happy family of Natasha and Pierre, built with love and respect for each other. Natasha internally merged with Pierre, did not leave in her duo "not a single corner not open for him."
Moreover, Tolstoy combines the Rostovs and Bolognas into one family. The family of Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya combines the best features of these families. Nikolai Rostov loves his wife and admires "her sincerity, in front of that almost inaccessible to him, sublime and moral world in which his wife lived." And Marya sincerely loves her husband, who "will never understand everything that she understands," and this makes her love him even more.
The fate of Nikolai Rostov and Princess Marya was not easy. Quiet, meek, ugly in appearance, but beautiful in soul, the princess during the life of her father did not hope to get married and have children. The only one who wooed her, and even then for the sake of a dowry, Anatole Kuragin, of course, could not understand her high spirituality, moral beauty.
A chance meeting with Rostov, his noble deed, awakened in Marya an unfamiliar, exciting feeling. Her soul guessed in him "a noble, firm, selfless soul." Each meeting more and more revealed each other to them, connected them. The awkward, shy princess was transformed, becoming graceful and almost beautiful. Nikolai admired the beautiful soul that opened up to him and felt that Marya was higher than himself and Sonechka, whom he seemed to love before, but which remained “an empty flower”. Her soul did not live, did not make mistakes and did not suffer, and, according to Tolstoy, did not "deserve" family happiness.
These new happy families did not come about by accident. They are the result of the unity of the entire Russian people, which took place during the Patriotic War of 1812. The year 1812 changed a lot in Russia, in particular, removed some class prejudices and gave a new level of human relations.
Tolstoy has favorite heroes and favorite families, where, perhaps, serene calm does not always reign, but where people live in "peace", that is, together, together, supporting each other. Only those who are high spiritually have, according to the writer, the right to real family happiness.
MOU secondary school No. 2 with. Divnoe G.A. Zavarukhin Topic:“What is an ideal family in the understanding of L.N. Tolstoy (based on the novel "War and Peace"?
Target: show that Tolstoy's ideal is a patriarchal family with its saint
care of the elders for the younger and younger for the elders, with the ability
everyone in the family has more to give than to take, with relationships,
built on "good and truth",
develop students' ability to summarize what they have read,
educate respect for the home, family, her
traditions.
Equipment: portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, texts, cards - assignments,
What is needed for happiness? Quiet family life...
with the ability to do good to people ...
L.N. Tolstoy
My ideal is the life of simple working people,
the one that makes life, and the meaning that
he gives to her.
L.N. Tolstoy
During the classes
Family ... What should she be? This is a difficult question, but you can handle it.
How will our lesson go?
PLAN
1. Work in groups on the problem.
2. Publication of results.
3. Work on the project "Ideal family in the understanding of Leo Tolstoy".
4.Presentation of projects.
5.Reflexive moment.
Guys! Please read the epigraph that I wrote on the board. Try to answer why I decided to introduce you to these words of the writer?
So what is the ideal of the family in the understanding of Leo Tolstoy? Before you start working on a problem, read the assignment you will be doing. First, each think about the question. You have 2 minutes.
MOU secondary school No. 2 with. Divnoe G.A. Zavarukhin
Choose who will be your “generator” of ideas today, please exchange opinions and present your conclusions in the diagram.
You presented us with an ideal family in Leo Tolstoy's understanding. Let's now write down the hallmarks by summarizing your projects.
Love for children Understanding
self-sacrifice
Kindness
Honesty, Patriotism
truthfulness
openness
souls Proximity to the people Naturalness
Guys, there is another feature of such a family. Let's get back to the epigraph. What is the writer talking about? What does it have to do with the topic of our conversation! So closeness to people is a must. Write it down.
Tell me, can we say the same about the family today? What qualities do we lack? Or maybe our family does not need all this?
Reflecting on what an ideal family is, I realized (a) that ...
8. Summary of the lesson
MOU secondary school No. 2 with. Divnoe G.A. Zavarukhin
I hope that our conversation today will help you create a good family in the future. I will not give grades for work in the lesson: life will put them on its own. And to complete our conversation, I suggest that you write a mini-essay as homework
Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest prose writers of the 19th century, the "golden age" of Russian literature. For two centuries now, his works have been read all over the world, because these amazingly lively and vivid verbal canvases not only occupy the reader, but make you think about many important questions for a person - and provide answers to some of them. A vivid example of this is the pinnacle of the writer's work, the epic novel "War and Peace", in which Tolstoy touches on topics that are burning for any thinking person. The theme of the family in the novel "War and Peace" by Tolstoy is very important, as well as for the author himself. That is why Tolstoy's heroes are practically never alone.
The text most fully reveals the structure and relationships of three completely different families: the Rostovs, Bolkonskys and Kuragins - of which the first two for the most part correspond to the opinion of the author himself on this issue.
The head of the large Rostov family, Ilya Andreevich, is a Moscow nobleman, a very kind, generous and trusting person, who adores his wife and children. In view of his extreme spiritual simplicity, he does not know how to run a household at all, so the family is on the verge of ruin. But Rostov Sr. cannot refuse anything to the household: he leads a luxurious life, pays his son's debts.
The Rostovs are very kind, always ready to help, sincere and responsive, so they have many friends. It is not surprising that it was in this family that the true patriot of the Motherland Petya Rostov grew up. Authoritarianism is not inherent in the Rostov family at all: here children respect their parents, and parents respect their children. That is why Natasha was able to persuade her parents to take out not valuable things from besieged Moscow, but wounded soldiers. The Rostovs preferred to remain penniless rather than transgress the laws of honor, conscience and compassion. In the images of the Rostov family, Tolstoy embodied his own ideas about the ideal family nest, about the indestructible connection of a real Russian family. Isn't this the best illustration that can show how big the role of the family is in War and Peace?
The "fruit" of such love, such a highly moral upbringing is beautiful - this is Natasha Rostova. She absorbed the best qualities of her parents: from her father she took kindness and breadth of nature, the desire to make the whole world happy, and from her mother - caring and thriftiness. One of the most important qualities of Natasha is naturalness. She is not able to play a role, to live according to secular laws, her behavior does not depend on the opinions of others. This is a girl with a wide-open soul, an extrovert, capable of completely and completely surrendering to love for all people in general and for her soulmate. She is the ideal woman from Tolstoy's point of view. And this ideal was brought up by an ideal family.
Another representative of the younger generation of the Rostov family, Nikolai, does not differ in either depth of mind or breadth of soul, but he is a simple, honest and decent young man.
The "ugly duckling" of the Rostov family, Vera, chose a completely different path for herself - the path of selfishness. Having married Berg, she created a family that did not look like either the Rostovs or the Bolkonskys. This cell of society is based on external gloss and a thirst for enrichment. Such a family, according to Tolstoy, cannot become the foundation of society. Why? Because there is nothing spiritual in such a relationship. This is the path of separation and degradation, leading to nowhere.
The Bolkonsky family, serving nobles, is somewhat different. Each of the members of this genus is a remarkable personality, talented, whole and spiritual. This is a family of strong people. The head of the family, Prince Nikolai, is a man of an extremely harsh and quarrelsome nature, but not cruel. Therefore, he is respected and feared even by his own children. Most of all, the old prince appreciates smart and active people, and therefore he tries to instill such qualities in his daughter. Andrei Bolkonsky inherited nobility, sharpness of mind, pride and independence from his father. The son and father of the Bolkonsky are diversified, intelligent and strong-willed people. Andrei is one of the most complex characters in the novel. From the first chapters of the epic to the end of his life, this person goes through the most difficult spiritual evolution, trying to comprehend the meaning of life and find his calling. The theme of the family in "War and Peace" is fully revealed at the end of Andrei's life, when he nevertheless understands that only a family man surrounded by people dear to his heart can become happy.
Andrei's sister, Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, is shown in the novel as an absolutely whole physically, psychologically and morally person. A girl who is not distinguished by physical beauty lives in constant expectation of quiet family happiness. This is a boat filled with love and care, waiting for a patient and skillful captain. This smartest, romantic and extremely religious girl dutifully endures all the rudeness of her father, never for a moment ceasing to love him strongly and sincerely.
Thus, the younger generation of the Bolkonsky family inherited all the best qualities of the old prince, ignoring only his rudeness, imperiousness and intolerance. Therefore, Andrei and Marya are able to truly love people, which means they are able to develop as individuals, climb the spiritual ladder - to the ideal, to the light, to God. Therefore, the war and peace of the Bolkonsky family are so difficult to understand for most of their contemporaries, therefore neither Maria nor Andrei love social life.
The Kuragin family is directly opposite to the two previous genera. The head of the family, Prince Vasily, hides the rotten nature of a greedy, through and through false brute behind an external gloss. For him, the main thing is money and social position. His children, Helen, Anatole and Hippolyte, are in no way inferior to their father: outwardly attractive, superficially smart and successful young people in society are in fact empty, albeit beautiful, vessels. Behind their own egoism and greed, they do not see the spiritual world - or do not want to see. In general, the Kuragin family are vile toads dressed in lace and hung with jewels; they sit in a dirty swamp and croak contentedly, not seeing the beautiful endless sky above their heads. For Tolstoy, this family is the personification of the world of the "secular mob", which the author himself despised with all his heart.
Finishing the essay “The Theme of the Family in the Novel War and Peace”, I want to note that this topic is one of the main ones in the text. This thread permeates the fate of almost all the heroes of the work. The reader can observe in action the causal relationship between upbringing, the atmosphere in the parental home, the future fate of an adult person - and his influence on the world.
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