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Lesson No. 18

“Family Thought” in L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”

Goals:

educational:

upbringingstable moral and ethical standards of relationships in the family;

creating conditions for strengthening the prestige of the family, forming a value system of moral guidelines and ideals;

educational:

generalization and systematization of knowledge obtained during the study of the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace” on the topic of the lesson;

creating conditions for defining the “Tolstoy” ideal of family;

developing:

improving skills in working with text, the ability to analyze what you read;

developing the ability to search for information in sources of various types;

forming your own position on the issues discussed.

Lesson type: a lesson in the integrated application of knowledge.

Lesson type: workshop lesson.

Methodical techniques: conversation on questions, retelling the text, expressive reading of the text, watching episodes from a feature film, student reports.

Predicted result:

knowartistic text; definition of “Tolstoy’s” understanding of family;

be able toindependently find material on the topic and systematize it.

Equipment: notebooks, literary text, computer, multimedia, presentation, feature film.

During the classes

I. Organizational stage.

II. Motivation for learning activities. Goal setting.

The teacher's word.

The grain grows in the FAMILY,

A person grows up in a FAMILY.

And everything that then acquires

It does not come to him from outside.

Family is the basis of a person’s entire life, his happiness, peace of mind, peace of mind. Ideally, a family is held together and brightened by love and understanding. To confirm this, I’ll tell you a legend: “In ancient times, there lived an amazing family. The family was huge - a hundred people, and peace, love, and harmony reigned in it. Word of this reached the supreme ruler himself. And he decided to visit this family. When the ruler was convinced that this was true, he asked the Elder, the head of the family: “How do you manage to live without ever quarreling or offending each other?” Then the Elder took the paper, wrote 100 words on it and gave it to the ruler. He quickly read it and was surprised: one word was written on the sheet 100 times - understanding.”

Discussion of the topic and objectives of the lesson.

III . Improving knowledge, skills and abilities.

The teacher's word.

“All happy families are similar to each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” with these words L.N. Tolstoy begins his novel “Anna Karenina,” in which, as he himself said, he embodied “the thought of family.” In the novel “War and Peace,” the writer also assigned a very important role to family, family foundations, and traditions.

UEvery person has his own source. This source is the home, family, its traditions, way of life. Today we get acquainted with the family nests of the main characters: the Rostovs; Bezukhov, Kuragin, Bolkonsky, we will visit these families to understand the main question: “What kind of family life does Tolstoy consider real?”

The Rostov family.

Where does the first part of the second volume begin?

The war did not end, but it paused. After the victory at Austerlitz, Napoleon concluded a beneficial peace with Austria and went to Paris, and the Russian troops returned to their homeland, and many officers received leave, including Nikolai Rostov.

What kind of desire is Nikolai Rostov gripped by, what feelings does he experience when approaching his parents’ house?

He’s going on vacation to Moscow, he’s already arrived and thinks: “Soon, soon? Oh, these unbearable streets, shops, rolls, lanterns, cab drivers!” Nikolai Rostov is overwhelmed with an impatient desire to quickly drive up to his home.

Reading the episode “Meeting with Family.”

We are so familiar with the feeling that Nikolai experienced a few minutes after his arrival: “Rostov was very happy with the love that was shown to him: but the first minute of his meeting was so blissful that his current happiness seemed not enough to him, and he was still waiting for something again, and again, and again"

Now conclude what does his parents’ home mean to him?

In his parents’ house, he - an officer, an adult man - with natural ease re-entered his childhood world, he understood “burning his hand with a ruler to show love”, and Natasha’s chatter, and the fact that she tried to put on his boots with spurs, and Sonya , circling around the room - all this, it seemed, had been in him for all the long months under cannonballs and bullets, and now here, in his parents’ house, it came to life and blossomed.

Student message. The Rostovs are parents. Presentation.

Tolstoy considers the mother to be the moral core of the family, and the highest virtue of a woman is the sacred duty of motherhood: “The Countess was a woman with an oriental type of thin face, about 45 years old, apparently exhausted by children, of whom she had 12 people. The slowness of her movements and speech, resulting from weakness of strength, gave her a significant appearance that inspired respect.” The author emphasizes the closeness of mother and daughter with one name - Natalya.

Tolstoy also describes the Count with tenderness. Count Rostov greeted all the guests equally warmly, without the slightest shade, both above and below him, to the people standing above him, he laughs with a “sonorous and bassy laugh,” he is “kindness itself.”

The hospitable and generous house of the Rostovs cannot but charm the reader. Both in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, a variety of people came to dinner with them: neighbors in Otradnoye, poor old landowners, Pierre Bezukhov. There is a feeling of selfless cordiality.

The life of the Rostovs in the village is patriarchal in nature - the serfs dress up at Christmas time and have fun with the masters.

Retelling of the "Christmastide" episode.

Watch the episode "After the Hunt."

What is the relationship between parents and children in the Rostov family?

The relationship between parents and children in the Rostov family is built on sincerity of feelings, love, understanding, respect, and trust in each other. The spirit of equality and selflessness dominates in this family. Here they openly rejoice, cry and worry together. The Rostovs are ready to accept and treat anyone: in the family, in addition to their four children, Sonya and Boris Drubetskoy are being raised. Their home is comfortable for both friends and strangers.

Retell the episode “Natasha’s Name Day” (volume 1, part 1, chapters 7-11, 14-17).

What does this picture add to the characteristics of the Rostov “breed”?

Simplicity and cordiality, natural behavior, cordiality and mutual love in the family, nobility and sensitivity, closeness in language and customs to the people.

What is the Rostov family code?

a) generous hospitality;

b) respect for each individual;

c) sincerity and mutual understanding between parents and children;

d) openness of soul;

e) all feelings come out;

e) a feeling of patriotism.

Bolkonsky family.

The teacher's word.

Now let’s stay a little with the Bolkonskys, in Bald Mountains. Nothing can change the calm, active and measured life of the old princely house in Bald Mountains. “The same hours, and walks along the alleys.” And as always, early in the morning, a majestic little old man in a “velvet fur coat with a sable collar and a matching hat” goes out for a walk in the fresh snow. He is old, Prince Bolkonsky, he deserves peace. But this old man did not dream of peace.

What was Nikolai Andreevich thinking about when reading his son’s daily letters?

He probably longed with all his heart to go there, to the Austrian fields, remembered the great Suvorov, dreamed of his Toulon - he is old, but he is alive and full of spiritual strength. Mental, but not physical. You have to come to terms with the fact that you cannot easily, as before, jump on a horse and ride under bullets across the enemy. You have to come to terms with the fact that thought does not work as quickly as before, and your strength diminishes, and there is no place for you where before it seemed impossible without you. That's why he's difficult, this old man, because he can't come to terms with his helplessness. But, as much as he has the strength, he will be useful to Russia, his son, his daughter.

Student message. Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky. Presentation.

Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky attracts both Tolstoy and modern readers with his originality. “An old man with keen, intelligent eyes,” “with the brilliance of smart and young eyes,” “inspiring a feeling of respect and even fear,” “he was harsh and invariably demanding.” A friend of Kutuzov, he received general-in-chief in his youth. Nikolai Andreevich, honoring only two human virtues: “activity and intelligence,” “was constantly busy either writing his memoirs, or calculations from higher mathematics, or turning snuff boxes on a machine, or working in the garden and observing buildings.”

Proud and adamant, the prince asks his son to hand over the notes to the sovereign after his death. And for the Academy he prepared a prize for the one who would write the history of the “Suvorov wars.”

What did Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky want to give to his children?

Long ago, when he was young, strong and active, among the many joys that filled his life were children - Prince Andrei and Princess Marya, whom he loved very much. He was involved in their upbringing and training himself, without trusting or entrusting this to anyone. He wanted to raise his son smart, noble, happy, and his daughter - not like the stupid secular young ladies - but a beautiful woman.

What was his soul aching about?

The son grew up handsome, smart and honest, but this did not make him happy. He went into an incomprehensible life with an unpleasant woman - what remains for the father? Trying to understand my son and take care of his wife: but this is not what I once dreamed of.

His girl also grew up and became a rich bride; he taught her geometry, raised her to be kind and noble, but this will only make life more difficult for her. What does she know about people, what does she understand in life? The daughter looks ugly! But he, like no one else, understands how rich his daughter’s spiritual world is; he knows how beautiful she can be in moments of great excitement. That is why the arrival and matchmaking of the Kuragins, “this stupid, heartless breed,” is so painful for him. They are not looking for his daughter, but for his wealth, his noble family! And Princess Marya is waiting, worried! He, with his desire to make children truthful and honest, he himself raised Andrei unarmed against Princess Lisa, and Marya against Prince Vasily. Today he is alive and saved his daughter, but tomorrow?

Which episode shows the relationship between father and son in the Bolkonsky family?

Prince Andrei's departure to war.

With what feeling does the father send Andrei to war?

With joy that my son is fulfilling his duty and service.

How does the elder Bolkonsky understand the service?

To serve, not to be served. But to serve not like Ippolit, for whom his father procured the post of ambassador in Vienna, and not as an adjutant under some, albeit important, but insignificant person, like Berg, Boris Drubetskoy, but under Kutuzov himself. Although, being an adjutant to anyone is not in the Bolkonsky traditions.

What struggle takes place in the soul of the old prince at the moment of farewell?

The struggle of father and citizen, with the victory of the latter. It's better to be hurt than embarrassed. “Pride of thought” prevents both from revealing the full depth of their experiences.

Prove that Andrei Bolkonsky respects his father immensely and has an urgent need to communicate with him?

Admiration for my father's education in political affairs. Please take your son with you in the event of his death. He had probably never received such a compliment in his entire life. This is not just a high assessment of the father’s human qualities, but also the sons’ love for him, expressed, like everything that Andrei does, in a masculine, stern and restrained manner.

What do all the Bolkonskys have in common?

Severity, “dryness,” and pride are the most frequently repeated traits in portraits of father and son. But perhaps the most important thing that unites all the Bolkonskys is the similarity of their eyes, highlighted by Tolstoy: like Princess Marya, the same “beautiful eyes” of Prince Andrei, they also “shone with an intelligent and kind, unusual shine,” intelligent and brilliant eyes Bolkonsky - father. Aristocratism, pride, intelligence and deep work of thought, the depth of the spiritual world hidden from the eyes of outsiders - these are the characteristic features of the Bolkonsky family. At the moment of the birth of the son of Princess Lisa and Prince Andrei in the Bolkonsky house, “there was some kind of general concern, softness of heart and consciousness of something great, incomprehensible, happening at that moment.”

What are the similarities and differences between the parents and children of the Bolkonskys and Rostovs?

The Bolkonskys, like the Rostovs, have the same mutual love of family members, the same deep cordiality (only hidden), the same naturalness of behavior. The Bolkonsky house and the Rostov house are similar, first of all, in their sense of family, spiritual kinship, and patriarchal way of life.

Kuragin family.

Against the background of the characteristics of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, the relationships in the Kuragin family will sound in contrast.

Student message. Kuragin family.

How does Vasily Kuragin understand his parental duty?

Vasily Kuragin is the father of three children. He, too, probably doesn’t sleep well at night, thinking for his children, how to help, guide, protect. But for him the concept of happiness has a different meaning than for Prince Bolkonsky. All his dreams come down to one thing: to find a more profitable place for them, to get rid of them. How much effort the magnificent wedding of his daughter Helen, the current Countess Bezukhova, cost Prince Vasily! Having abandoned all his affairs, he looked after and guided the “unlucky” Pierre, assigned him to a chamber cadet, settled him in his house, and when Pierre never made an offer, Prince Vasily put everything on his shoulders and decisively blessed Pierre and Helene. Helen is attached. Ippolit, thank God, is in diplomacy, in Austria - out of danger; but the youngest remains, Anatole, with his dissipation, debts, drunkenness; The idea arose to marry him to Princess Bolkonskaya - one could not wish for anything better. All Kuragins easily endure the shame of matchmaking. Their calmness comes from indifference to everyone except themselves. Pierre will brand their spiritual callousness and meanness: “Where you are, there is debauchery and evil.”

What are the relationships in this family?

There is no place for sincerity and decency in this house. The members of the Kuragin family are connected to each other by a terrible mixture of base instincts and impulses! The mother experiences jealousy and envy towards her daughter; the father sincerely welcomes arranged marriages, dirty intrigues and bad connections for his children. It seems that the growth of this nest of sins and vices can only be stopped physically - and all three younger Kuragins remain childless. Nothing will be born from them, because in a family one must be able to give others the warmth of the soul and care.

Conclusion.

Define in one word the main core of the family:

Rostov family (love)

Bolkonsky family (nobility)

Kuragin family (lie)

The teacher's word.

What kind of life does Tolstoy call real?

“The real life of people is life with its own essential interests of health, illness, work, rest, with its own interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions.” Each family has its own “beginnings” and understands happiness in its own way. Tolstoy affirms eternal values ​​as the basis of happiness - home, family, love. This is what each of us needs. We all dream of a home where we are loved and welcomed.

Student messages.

Natasha Rostova and Pierre.

Natasha and Prince Andrei.

V . Summarizing.

VI . Reflection.

The theme of family and its role in human life concerned L.N. Tolstoy throughout his life. A whole series of bright and different families passes before us in the novel “War and Peace”.

The novel begins with how Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is burdened by family life and the company of his young wife. Family ties interfere with his ambitious plans, and his pretty, flirtatious wife annoys him. “Never, never get married!” - he warmly advises Pierre Bezukhov.

At the same time, how respectful Bolkonsky is to his father, despite all his despotic ways and how difficult his sister Maria lives with his father. A difficult, tense atmosphere reigns in this family, but old man Bolkonsky sincerely loves his children, worries about them and unmistakably determines his son’s feelings for his wife. The children respond to him with mutual love.

The Kuragin family is one of the most significant families in the world and one of the most negatively represented in the novel. Prince Vasily, unlike the old man Bolkonsky, considers his children a burden, the Kuragins’ mother envies the youth and beauty of her daughter, Anatole and Helen are depraved and selfish people.

Pierre Bezukhov initially marries Helen Kuragina because he is struck by her beauty and falls into the cleverly placed networks of this family. And only after some time, when the scales fell from Pierre’s eyes, he saw how stupid and insignificant his beautiful wife was. Probably Pierre would have made much fewer mistakes if he had loving, understanding parents next to him.

The most memorable and harmonious family in the novel is, of course, the Rostovs. Starting from the sweet scenes of Natasha’s name day, when the head of the family, Count Rostov, famously dances in honor of his favorite, delighting everyone, to leaving Moscow, when Natasha passionately convinces her parents to give carts not for things, but for the wounded (and they agree! ), we see how great mutual love, friendship and understanding are in this family.

At the end of the novel, another family appears - Natasha and Pierre. And we understand that it is difficult to find more suitable people for each other. Deep, sensitive and understanding of each other and those around them, boundlessly loving their children, Natasha and Pierre, of course, will live a full, happy family life together. The sorrows and losses they experienced taught them to better appreciate each other, and quiet, true family happiness will heal the mental wounds of these worthy people.

Option 2

“War and Peace” is perhaps a real encyclopedia of Russian life in prose. Throughout the action of the novel, the life of three families over 15 years is described. The work is impressive, colossal. Throughout the novel we see family traditions, customs and treasures of several generations of the Rostov, Kuragin and Bolkonsky families. So we can safely say that “family thought” is one of the dominant thoughts of the epic novel.

The Rostov family is presented by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy as exemplary and imitative. It is in the Rostov house that the novel begins with the scene of the celebration of the name day of the senior Countess Natalya Rostova and the youngest of the Count’s daughters, also Natalya. The Rostov estate is an abode of love, mutual understanding and support, goodwill, and hospitality. Each of the members of the Rostov family loves not only their neighbors, they are all, as one, true patriots, as can be judged by their joint move to the estate during the war with Napoleon. And, despite their origins, the Rostovs set up a hospital for wounded soldiers. And when they leave this shelter, they also help the soldiers evacuate on carts. The youngest Natasha played a huge role in this, because it was she who persuaded her relatives to leave things and family heirlooms in order to save the lives of the fighters.

The Bolkonsky family are antagonists of the Rostov family. No, Tolstoy shows them as relatives who love each other, but still harsh relatives. They have neither tenderness nor intimacy, which are so characteristic of the Rostovs. In the Bolkonsky family, like in the army, there is a strict hierarchy and order. Every thing has its place, time, task. What a thing, every person! And it was simply impossible to disrupt this course and order. And if after the war the Rostov family lives and enjoys the life saved, then it is difficult to say whether the Bolkonskys are happy. Prince Andrei died at Borodino, Prince Nikolai - a clerk at the Tsar's court, Princess Marya - passed through the most difficult path of difficulties and adversity and survived only thanks to her upbringing and faith.

And if both the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, although they are opposite in their attitude towards each other, then in the Kuragin family everything is completely bad. This is a whole “galaxy” of failed family relationships. For each of this family, the meaning of life becomes power and money. The elder Prince Vasily abandons his relatives in favor of friends whose position can be taken advantage of. Helen (the prince's daughter) is stupid, empty, cold and even partly vulgar, which does not prevent her from presenting herself from a perspective favorable to the Light and her interlocutors. Hippolytus (the eldest son) even receives the title “fool” from his father. And Tolstoy speaks of Anatole (his brother) as a person prone to fornication.

And yet, having presented us with a gallery of various family “portraits,” Lev Nikolaevich hopefully describes to us the family that Natasha Rostova and her chosen one Pierre Bezukhov have already formed. And in the image of Natalya Bezukhova, a caring and tender mother of four children, we see the image that the author would like to see not only on the pages of his novel.

It is in the image of the families of the novel that one can read one of the main ideas of the epic: the strength of the family can strengthen the state.

Essay Family Thought in the novel War and Peace

“War and Peace” is an epic novel about the fate of the people and the people’s exploits. But “folk thought” is not the only thing presented in the work. “Family Thought” is also one of the main themes of War and Peace. The reader sees the families of the main characters. There are three of them: Bolkonsky, Rostov and Kuragin.

In the Rostov house, as well as in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, secular society talks about the war. The difference is that those gathered at the Rostovs are interested in the war because their children are going to war. Naturalness, simplicity, cordiality, nobility and sensitivity reign at the Rostov table. We see a closeness in language and customs to the common people, but at the same time, adherence to secular conventions, but, unlike the Scherer salon, without any calculation or self-interest.

The Bolkonskys are a princely family, rich and respected. Their life is somewhat similar to the life of the Rostov family - the same love, cordiality and closeness to the people. But at the same time, the Bolkonskys differ from the Rostovs in their work of thought, high intelligence and pride. They are characterized by dry features, short stature, small arms and legs. Beautiful eyes with a smart, unusual sparkle. Aristocratism, pride, depth of spiritual thought - these are the characteristics of the family of Prince Bolkonsky.

The Kuragin family is also aristocratic and influential, like the Bolkonskys. But, unlike previous families, the Kuragins personify vices. The head of the family, Vasily Kuragin, is an empty, deceitful and proud person who adapts to circumstances. His wife Alina is jealous of the beauty of her seemingly ideal, but depraved and stupid daughter. Their son Anatole is a guard officer who loves to drink and have fun, and the second son, Hippolyte, is ugly and even more stupid than the rest. And the relationships in the Kuragin family are cold and calculating. Vasily Kuragin himself admits that his children are a burden for him.

From all this it follows that it is the Rostov family that is the ideal for Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. Kind, sympathetic, loving their homeland and people, they are role models. After all, later Natasha, the third daughter of Count Ilya Rostov, created her own family with Pierre Bezukhov. She is a loving and caring mother and wife, protecting family comfort.

Krinitsyn A.B.

Family plays a huge role in shaping the character of heroes. This is a kind of microcosm, a world unique in its completeness, outside of which there is no life. It is the family that is the smallest, but also the most important unity, from the many of which society and the nation are formed. In his novel, Tolstoy examines in most detail the families of the Kuragins, Rostovs and Bolkonskys. In each of the families, both the older (parents) and the younger generation (brother and sister) are depicted in detail, which allows us to trace the family’s ancestral traits.

In the Bolkonsky family, a common character-building feature is the spiritual, intellectual principle. Spiritual life presupposes intense internal mental work, and therefore is inevitably combined in Tolstoy’s understanding with intellectuality, rationality, and also with the development of individualism. The image of the old Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky, an atheist and Voltairian, makes us remember the rationalism of the 18th century. This is one of the “Catherine’s eagles”, a general of Suvorov’s school, a real statesman who cares for the interests of Russia, and not for career advancement (that’s why in modern times he remains out of work, retired). His character is dominated by intelligence, will and authority, combined with coldness and irony. Tolstoy especially stands out for his amazingly sharp mind (one question or even one glance is enough for him to fully understand a person). In his son, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, he instills a serious attitude towards life, masculinity, independence, a sense of honor and duty. It is no coincidence that Andrei, leaving for war, asks his father to raise his grandson himself, without giving him to his daughter-in-law. Despite his advanced age, the prince never changes the established daily routine, reads and works a lot. Even living in the village without a break, he remains aware of all the latest political news in Europe. With age, he develops a distrust of the new time, the merits and significance of which he downplays in every possible way. He scolds all new political figures, preferring to all of them his idol - Suvorov, whom he imitates even in his behavior and sometimes funny antics (for example, he orders to deliberately throw snow on the already cleared road to the house before the arrival of Prince Vasily Kuragin, because he does not want to show “excessive” respect for him). His family fears him, but respects him for his unyielding character.

However, over the years, his oddities become increasingly cruel. The strong love for children, which he does not like to show, becomes openly selfish: for example, he does not allow his beloved daughter, Princess Marya, to get married, keeping her with him in the village, and also does not give consent to the marriage of Prince Andrei with Natasha (he is generally the Rostov family) dislikes) earlier than a year after the engagement, as a result of which the marriage is upset. Not wanting to show his feelings, he gets used to hiding them under the shell of external severity and coldness, but this mask, imperceptibly for him, grows to his face and becomes his nature. As a result, he torments his daughter with cruel antics and ridicule, the more painfully the more he feels guilty before her, alienating her from himself and mocking her faith in God. He also quarrels with his son, who dares to openly reproach him for being wrong. Then he painfully struggles with himself, wanting reconciliation and at the same time being afraid of losing himself.

The princess notices her father’s suffering by the way he changes his place to sleep every night, most of all avoiding the usual sofa in the office - he had too many difficult thoughts to change his mind there. Only at the point of death, half paralyzed after the blow, in despair from the abandonment of Smolensk by Russian troops and from the news of the approach of the French to the Bald Mountains, does he give up his pride and wants to ask for forgiveness from his daughter, but she, due to her habitual fear of her father, is somewhat Once approaching the threshold of his room, he still does not dare to enter his room on the last night allotted to him in his life. This is how he pays for his past cruelty...

Princess Marya represents a “feminine”, contemplative type of spirituality - religiosity. She lives entirely by faith and Christian ideals, confident that true happiness is not in earthly goods, but in connection with the source of “all breath” - with the Creator. The main thing in life for her is selfless love and humility, so she is very close to Tolstoy’s philosophical ideals of the world. She is not alien to earthly feelings: like a woman, she passionately desires love and family happiness, but she completely trusts the will of God and is ready to accept any fate. She catches herself with bad thoughts about her father, who fetters her freedom and dooms her to loneliness. But every time she manages to overcome herself by doing the usual spiritual work in prayer: faith in her is stronger than all other feelings, in which she is unexpectedly similar to her father, who also considers all human feelings to be weakness and subordinates them to the highest imperative of duty. Only the old prince identifies duty with reason, and the princess with religious commandments, which again oblige her to feelings, but of a higher order: to love God with all her heart and thoughts, and her neighbor as herself. As a result, for Princess Marya, the duty to obey her father is inseparable from sincere love for him.

There was only a minute when she caught herself thinking that she was rejoicing at the imminent death of her father, which should free her. But immediately, horrified by this thought, the princess began to fight it and won, joyfully feeling that the temptation had been overcome and she loved her father again. “- Why should it happen? What did I want? I want him dead! - she exclaimed with disgust at herself.” When her dying father asks her for forgiveness, the princess “could not understand anything, think about anything and feel anything except her passionate love for her father, love which, it seemed to her, she did not know until that moment.”

Her brother, Prince Andrei, combines all the best qualities of the Bolkonsky family: will, intelligence, nobility, a sense of honor and duty. His father's coldness and harshness towards people who are strangers and unpleasant to him are combined with his sister's warmth and gentleness in dealing with people close to him. He loves his sister tenderly and devotedly, and reveres his father immensely. We recognize from Prince Andrei his father's independence and ambition, growing to the desire for worldwide fame, similar to that of Napoleon. Just like his father, Andrei is subject to painful, protracted mental crises, and just before his death, suffering from a mortal wound, he comes to faith in God and is imbued with it with no less strength than his sister Marya.

Tolstoy treats all the Bolkonskys with respect and sympathy, but at the same time shows how these noble, intelligent and sublime people, despite their love and mutual devotion to each other, spiritual sensitivity and complete mutual understanding, remain separated due to the self-centeredness of father and son and reluctance to show your feelings. They are too protective of their complex inner world and their love, so that they are often late with it, like Prince Andrei, who only realized after the death of his wife the pain that he caused her with his coldness, or the old prince, who for a long time pestered his beloved daughter with his domineering whims . Over the years, as the prince ages, a cold and wary atmosphere develops in their house, which gives them more and more moral torment, for they judge themselves with the strictest judgment.

A completely different atmosphere reigns in the Rostov house. The invisible core of their family is spiritual life. These people are warm-hearted and simple, there is something childish in them all. The pride of the Bolkonskys is alien to them, they are natural in all their spiritual movements and, like no one else, they know how to enjoy life. The Rostovs can never restrain their emotions: they constantly cry and laugh, forgetting about decency and etiquette. In general, the brightest and most sincerely lyrical scenes of the novel are associated with the Rostovs. Holidays and balls are their element. No one knows how to organize dinners so generously and on such a scale as Ilya Andreich Rostov, who is famous for this even in hospitable Moscow. But the most fun in the Rostov house is not crowded gatherings, but family holidays in a narrow family circle, sometimes improvised and even more memorable (such as Christmastide with mummers). However, they generally live in a festive atmosphere: Nikolai’s arrival from the army, Natasha’s first ball, the hunt and the subsequent evening at his uncle’s turn into a holiday. For Nikolai, even Natasha’s singing after his terrible loss to Dolokhov becomes an unexpectedly bright, festive impression, and for the younger Petya Rostov, the arrival in Denisov’s partisan detachment, the evening with the officers and the battle the next morning, which became his first and last, becomes a holiday.

The old count, due to his natural generosity and habit of taking everyone’s word for it, turns out to be a bad owner of his wife’s estate, because housekeeping requires systematicity, rigor and the will to order, which Rostov lacks. Under his leadership, the estate is slowly but surely heading towards ruin, but, what is very important, none of his family reproaches him for this, continuing to love him tenderly for his affection and kindness.

The mother - the “countess”, as her husband affectionately calls her - always remains the best friend for her children, to whom they can always tell everything, and for herself they always remain children, no matter what age they are. She generously endows them all with her love, but she gives the most warmth to those of them who at that moment need it most. It is no coincidence that Natasha’s betrayal of her fiancé, Prince Andrei, occurs precisely in the absence of her mother, when Natasha is visiting Akhrosimova and is temporarily deprived of the cover of maternal love and protection.

Only the eldest daughter, Vera, falls out of the general harmony of the Rostov family, because she is too reasonable and cannot share the general sentimentality, which she, sometimes rightly, finds inappropriate. But Tolstoy shows how her rationality, although correct, is narrow-minded - she does not have the spiritual generosity and depth of nature that the rest of the family members are endowed with. Having married Berg, Vera finally becomes what she was created to be - an arrogant, narcissistic bourgeois.

If the best features of the Bolkonsky family are most vividly embodied in Prince Andrei, then the outstanding representative of the Rostov family, undoubtedly, is Natasha, for if spiritual and intellectual life is more characteristic of the male consciousness, then women are more gifted with emotionality, sincerity, wealth and subtlety of feelings. An example of a man who lives primarily in the world of emotions is shown to us in the person of Nikolai Rostov. In him, feelings always take precedence over reason. This does not mean that he is less firm and courageous in character than Andrei Bolkonsky, but it makes him a much more mediocre and primitive person, because he does not know how to think independently and bring a decision to the end, but is accustomed to living by the first strong impulses of the soul. They may be noble (as is almost always the case with Rostov), ​​but ultimately they doom him to follow the thoughts and ideals of society without testing them. For Rostov, such ideals include the honor of the regiment, the oath, and Emperor Alexander himself, with whom Nicholas falls in love as a girl.

Because of his impressionability and emotionality, Rostov does not immediately get used to war and the constant danger of death. In the first battle (near Shengraben), when Rostov is wounded, we see him pitiful and confused, but in the end he becomes a brave and truly skillful officer. War and military service cultivate in him important masculine qualities, but deprive him of Rostov tenderness. The last time the Rostov beginning is clearly manifested in him is after a terrible loss to Dolokhov, when he cannot stand the proud pose in which he intended to ask his dad for money. Considering himself the ultimate scoundrel, he is on his knees, sobbing, begging for forgiveness. Rostov apparently “humiliated himself,” but readers cannot help but approve of him for this impulse.

Tolstoy does not share all of Rostov’s ideals: for example, he clearly does not sympathize with his hero when, in order to maintain the honor of the regiment, he refuses to expose officer Telyanin, who stole Denisov’s wallet. Even more ridiculous and even harmful is Rostov's blind and naive attachment to the emperor. If in the eyes of Rostov the emperor is the father of Russia, then the author considers all representatives of power and kings in particular to be the most useless and harmful people, carrying out the state ideology of justifying and praising wars. Tolstoy gives Nikolai Rostov an opportunity to be convinced first of the emperor’s helplessness (when he, confused and crying, flees from the Battle of Austerlitz), and then of his immorality: after the Peace of Tilsit, former enemies - the emperors Napoleon and Alexander - travel together, reviewing their guards and awarding soldier of the allied army with the highest orders. Joint feasts of the two courtyards are arranged, champagne flows. Rostov comes to headquarters to submit a request to the emperor for pardon for his colleague Denisov, and receives a refusal from the adored emperor in a soft, beautiful form: “I can’t... and therefore I can’t because the law is stronger than me.” At that moment, Rostov, “beside himself with delight” and without thinking about refusal, runs with the crowd after the emperor. But soon painful doubts come to him: “A painful work was going on in his mind, which he could not complete. Terrible doubts arose in my soul. Then he remembered Denisov<...>and the whole hospital with these severed arms and legs, with this dirt and disease.<...>Then he remembered this smug Bonaparte with his white hand, who was now an emperor, whom Emperor Alexander loves and respects. What are the torn off arms, legs, and killed people for? Then he remembered the awarded Lazarev and Denisov, punished and unforgiven. He found himself having such strange thoughts that he was frightened by them.”

Tolstoy directly leads Rostov to the idea of ​​​​the criminality of the war, for which, it turns out, there was no reason, and, consequently, to the idea of ​​​​the criminality of both emperors, who unleashed it with complete indifference to the suffering of their subjects. But Rostov cannot and does not want to give up worshiping his idol, and decides simply not to think, to close his eyes to the embarrassing facts. To make this easier, he gets drunk and screams, embarrassing his fellow guests with his irritation:

“How can you judge the actions of the sovereign, what right do we have to reason?! We cannot understand either the goals or the actions of the sovereign!<...>We are not diplomatic officials, but we are soldiers and nothing more,<...>They tell us to die - so die. And if they punish, it means he is guilty; It's not for us to judge. It pleases the sovereign emperor to recognize Bonaparte as emperor and enter into an alliance with him—that means it must be so. Otherwise, if we began to judge and reason about everything, there would be nothing sacred left. This way we will say that there is no God, there is nothing,” Nikolai shouted, hitting the table.”

From this moment on, the hussar, soldier element finally becomes the main thing in Nikolai’s character instead of the Rostov, spiritual element, which does not disappear completely, but recedes into the background. Refusal of thought gives him toughness and strength of character, but at a high price - he becomes an obedient instrument in the hands of others. Prince Andrei and Pierre often make mistakes, they do not immediately find the answer to the worldview questions that torment them, but their minds are always at work; thinking is as natural to them as breathing. Nikolai, despite the fact that he is sympathetic to Tolstoy as a pure, honest and kind person, comes to the readiness to carry out obviously cruel orders and justify in advance any social injustice.

It is significant that Rostov does not like Prince Andrei precisely because the stamp of intellect and spiritual life appears on his face, which is not characteristic of him, but at the same time Nikolai falls in love with Prince Andrei’s sister Marya, reverently before her because she has her own exalted , the world of faith inaccessible to him. It turns out that they complement each other, forming an ideal combination of hardness and softness, will and intelligence, spirituality and sincerity. Rostov, from Tolstoy’s point of view, despite his mediocrity, has something to love and respect. One cannot help but appreciate, for example, his dedication when, after the death of his father, which was immediately followed by final ruin, Nikolai resigns to be with his mother. He enters the civil service to earn at least some money and provide her with a peaceful old age. We see that he is a reliable and noble person. Out of a sense of honor, which never allowed him to be in the “lackey” position of adjutant, he does not want to seek the hand of the “rich bride” Princess Marya, despite the fact that he loves her touchingly, so their rapprochement occurs on her initiative.

Having taken possession of a large fortune, Nikolai becomes, in contrast to his father, a wonderful owner - driven by a sense of duty and responsibility for the future of his children. However, his character retains rigidity (he cannot stand small children, is irritated by the pregnant Marya, treats men rudely, to the point of assault), with which Nikolai constantly fights, submissive to the beneficial influence of his wife, and does not allow breakdowns. One of the last episodes of the novel characterizes him negatively, when he sharply responds to Pierre’s words about the need to take a critical approach to the actions of the government: “You say that the oath is a conditional matter, and to this I will tell you: that you are my best friend, you know that, but, if you form a secret society, if you begin to oppose the government, whatever it may be, I know that it is my duty to obey it. And Arakcheev told me now to go at you with a squadron and cut down - I won’t think for a second and I’ll go. And then judge as you wish.” These words make a painful impression on everyone around. We see that Nicholas's long-standing decision to obey the government without reasoning like a soldier has now taken root in him and has become the essence of his nature. However, in his own way, Nikolai is right: the state rests on people like him. Tolstoy condemns him from his point of view of an anti-statist who dreamed of a Rousseauist anarchist “natural” idyll, but we, already from the perspective of the social cataclysms that have happened to our country over the last century, can look at Nicholas from the other side: we know what happens, when the state is destroyed. If in 1917 Russia had been dominated by people like Nicholas - officers who remained loyal to the tsar and tried to save the army from disintegration in the chaos of the revolution (started by reformers and revolutionaries like Pierre), then the country could have been saved from many troubles, including from the Stalinist dictatorship.

Finally, the Kuragin family evokes only contempt and indignation in Tolstoy. Its members play the most negative role in the destinies of the other heroes. All of them are people of high society, and therefore are false and insincere in all their words, deeds and gestures. The head of the house, Prince Vasily, is a cunning, dexterous courtier and an inveterate intriguer. Tolstoy emphasizes his deceit and duplicity in every possible way. He thinks first of all about his successes at court and about moving up the career ladder. He never has his own opinion, turning like a weather vane in his judgments behind the political course of the court. During the war of 1812, Prince Vasily at first speaks of Kutuzov with contempt, knowing that the emperor does not favor him; the next day, when Kutuzov is appointed commander-in-chief, Kuragin begins to extol him, in order to renounce him at the first dissatisfaction of the court due to abandonment named after Moscow.

Kuragin also perceives his family as a means for gaining social position and enrichment: he tries to marry his son and marry off his daughter as profitably as possible. For the sake of profit, Prince Vasily is even capable of crime, as evidenced by the episode with the mosaic briefcase, when Kuragin tried to steal and destroy the will of the dying Count Bezukhov in order to deprive Pierre of his inheritance and redistribute it in his favor. During these hours, as Tolstoy describes, “his cheeks twitched nervously” and “jumped” “first to one side, then to the other, giving his face an unpleasant expression that never appeared on the face of Prince Vasily when he was in the living rooms.” . This is how his predatory nature inadvertently comes out. When the intrigue breaks down, Prince Vasily immediately “restructures” so as to still maintain his own benefit: he instantly “marries” Pierre to his daughter and, under the guise of a family and trusting relationship, deftly puts his hands into his son-in-law’s money, and then becomes the main character face in the daughter's salon. Tolstoy specifically emphasizes that Prince Vasily was hardly guided by conscious calculation: “Something constantly attracted him to people stronger and richer than him, and he was gifted with the rare art of catching exactly the moment when it was necessary and possible to take advantage of people.” Thus, when describing Kuragin’s psychology, the author again focuses our attention on feeling, intuition, instinct, which come to the fore, being more important than conscious will and reason.

“Worthy” are Prince Vasily and his children, Helen, Anatole and Hippolyte, who also enjoy brilliant success in the world and universal respect. Hélène, having married Pierre, soon opened a chic salon in his house, which quickly became one of the most fashionable and prestigious in St. Petersburg. She is not distinguished by intelligence or originality of judgment, but she knows how to smile so charmingly and meaningfully that she is considered the smartest woman in the capital, and the cream of the intelligentsia gathers in her salon: diplomats and senators, poets and painters. Pierre, being much more educated and deeper than his wife, finds himself in her salon as something like necessary furniture, the husband of a famous wife, whom the guests condescendingly tolerate, so that Pierre gradually begins to feel like a stranger in his own home.

Helene is constantly surrounded by men courting her, so Pierre doesn’t even know who to be jealous of and, tormented by doubts, comes to a duel with Dolokhov, whom his wife clearly singled out more than others. Helen not only did not feel sorry for her husband and did not think about his feelings, but made a scene for him and severely reprimanded him for an inappropriate “scandal” that could undermine her authority. In the end, having already broken up with her husband and living separately from him, Helen starts an intrigue with two admirers at once: with an elderly nobleman and with a foreign prince, wondering how she could get married again and settle down in such a way as to maintain a connection with both of them. For this reason, she even converts to Catholicism in order to declare the Orthodox marriage invalid (how different this unscrupulousness in matters of religion is from the ardent faith of Princess Marya!).

Anatole is the brilliant idol of all secular young ladies, the hero of the golden youth of both capitals. A slender, tall, blond handsome man, he drives all women crazy with his proud posture and ardent passion, behind which they do not have time to discern his soullessness and thoughtlessness. When Anatole came to the Bolkonskys, all the women in the house involuntarily became eager to please him and began to intrigue against each other. Anatole does not know how to talk to women, because he never finds anything smart to say, but he has a bewitching effect on them with the look of his beautiful eyes, like Helen’s smile. Natasha, even during her first conversation with Anatole, looking into his eyes, “felt with fear that between him and her there was absolutely no barrier of modesty that she had always felt between herself and other men. She, without knowing how, after five minutes felt terribly close to this man.”

Both brother and sister are incomparably good-looking; nature has endowed them with external beauty, which has an irresistible effect on people of the opposite sex with its sensual attraction. Even such noble and deep people as Pierre Bezukhov, who married Helene without love, Princess Marya, who dreamed of Anatole, and Natasha Rostova, who was carried away by the handsome Kuragin to the point of leaving her fiancé for him, are seduced by them. Helen's appearance emphasizes the antique beauty of her shoulders and bust, which she deliberately exposes as far as fashion allows.

The author even briefly remarks about the strange, unhealthy relationship that existed between the sister and brother in childhood, because of which they had to be separated for a while. On the pages of the novel, they often act together: Helen acts as a pimp, introducing and bringing Natasha closer to her brother, knowing that he is not allowed to visit her, Prince Andrei’s fiancée. As a result of this intrigue, Natasha’s whole life could have been ruined: she was ready to run away with him, not suspecting that he had been married for a long time. Thanks to Pierre's intervention, Anatole's plans were destroyed, but Natasha paid for her gullibility with the loss of Prince Andrei's love and a deep spiritual crisis, from which she could not recover for several years. “Where you are, there is debauchery and evil,” Pierre angrily says to his wife, having learned about her insidious act.

Thus, the main features of the Kuragin family are secularism and the animal, carnal nature. In Tolstoy's portrayal, secularism inevitably implies deceit, unprincipledness, selfishness and spiritual emptiness.

Hippolytus becomes a symbol of the spiritual ugliness of this family. Outwardly, he is surprisingly similar to Helen, but at the same time he is “amazingly bad-looking.” His face was “foggy with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident disgust. He cannot say anything smart, but in society he is greeted very kindly and all the absurdities he says are forgiven, because he is the son of Prince Vasily and the brother of Helen. In addition, he very boldly courtes all pretty women, since he is unusually voluptuous. Thus, his example reveals the inner ugliness of Helen and Anatole, hiding under their beautiful appearance.

The novel “War and Peace” very clearly emphasizes the huge role of the family in the development of the individual and society as a whole. The fate of a person largely depends on the environment in which he grew up, because he himself will then build his life, following the attitudes, traditions and moral standards adopted in his family.
War and Peace focuses on three families, completely different in the nature of the relationships between people within each of them. These are the Rostov, Bolkonsky and Kuragin families. Using their example, Tolstoy shows how strongly the mentality developed during growing up influences how people build their relationships with others and what goals and objectives they set for themselves.

The first to appear before the readers is the Kuragin family. The nature of the relationship that has developed in her is typical of a secular society - coldness and alienation from each other reigns in their home. The mother experiences jealousy and envy of her daughter; the father welcomes his children's arranged marriages. The whole atmosphere is permeated with falsehood and pretense. Instead of faces there are masks. The writer in this case shows the family as it should not be. Their spiritual callousness, meanness of soul, selfishness, insignificance of desires are branded by Tolstoy in the words of Pierre: “Where you are, there is depravity, evil.”

Relationships in the Rostov house are structured completely differently - here sincerity and love of life are manifested in every family member. Only the eldest daughter, Vera, with her cold and arrogant demeanor, isolates herself from the rest of the family, as if wanting to prove to herself and those around her her own superiority.

But she is nothing more than an unpleasant exception to the general situation. The father, Count Ilya Andreevich, radiates warmth and cordiality and, when meeting guests, greets and bows to everyone equally, not paying attention to rank and title, which already very much distinguishes him from representatives of high society. The mother, Natalya Rostova, “a woman with an oriental type of thin face, about forty-five years old,” enjoys the trust of her children, they try to tell her about their experiences and doubts. The presence of mutual understanding between parents and children is a distinctive feature of this family.

Having grown up in such an atmosphere, Natasha, Nikolai and Petya sincerely and openly show their feelings, not considering it necessary to hide themselves under an artificial mask, they have an ardent and at the same time soft and kind disposition.

Thanks to these qualities, Natasha made a huge impression on Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who saw her for the first time at a time when he was in a state of mental devastation and loss of strength. He did not feel the desire to live further and did not see the meaning in his existence, but she was distinguished by the fact that she did not occupy herself with the search for her higher purpose, and simply lived on the wave of her own feelings, radiating the warmth and love of life that Prince Andrei so lacked.

The main distinguishing feature of the Bolkonsky family was their proud, unbending disposition. Self-esteem is heightened in all members of this family, although this manifests itself differently in each person. A lot of attention was paid here to intellectual development. The old prince, Nikolai Bolkonsky, had a great passion for order. His whole day was scheduled minute by minute, and “with the people around him, from his daughter to the servants, the prince was harsh and invariably demanding and therefore, without being cruel, he aroused fear and respect for himself, which the most cruel person could not easily achieve "

The old prince raised his children in severity and restraint, which taught his children to also be restrained in expressing their feelings. However, this coldness was external, and the father’s enormous love still made itself felt. “Remember one thing, Prince Andrei,” he says to his son, seeing him off to war, “If they kill you, it will hurt me, an old man.” It was thanks to this upbringing that Prince Andrei was able to feel sincere love for Natasha, but the habit of being restrained and a mocking attitude towards emotional fervor made him doubt the sincerity of her love and agree to his father’s demand to postpone the wedding for a year.

The innocence and breadth of soul characteristic of the Rostov family, in which there was something childish and naive, gave these people, on the one hand, extraordinary strength, and on the other hand made them vulnerable in the face of other people's deceit and lies. Natasha failed to recognize the vile motives of Anatoly Kuragin, who was courting her, and the cold cynicism of his sister Helen, thereby exposing herself to the danger of shame and death.

Bolkonsky was unable to forgive Natasha for her betrayal, regarding her actions as a manifestation of depravity and hypocrisy, which he was most afraid of discovering in her. “I said that a fallen woman must be forgiven, but I did not say that I can forgive.”

But the strength of her soul did not allow her to be disappointed in people. Natasha remained just as sincere and open, which attracted the love of Pierre to her, who experienced a feeling of enormous elation after an explanation with her, realizing that all the actions of this girl were dictated by her open, tender heart. “All the people seemed so pitiful, so poor in comparison with the feeling of tenderness and love that he experienced; in comparison with that softened, grateful look with which she looked at him the last time because of her tears.”

Natasha and Pierre were united by a sincere love for life without artificial embellishments, embodied in the family they created. Marriage to Natasha helped Pierre find inner peace after a painful search for the purpose of his existence. “After seven years of marriage, Pierre felt a joyful, firm consciousness that he was not a bad person, and he felt this because he saw himself reflected in his wife.”

We find the same feeling of harmony in the family of Nikolai Rostov and Marya Bolkonskaya. They successfully complement each other: in this union, Nikolai plays the role of the economic head of the family, reliable and faithful, while Countess Marya is the spiritual core of this family. “If Nikolai could be aware of his feeling, he would have found that the main basis of his firm, tender and proud love for his wife was always based on this feeling of surprise at her sincerity, at that sublime, moral world, almost inaccessible to Nikolai, in where his wife always lived."

It seems to me that the author wanted to show how fruitful the atmosphere reigns in houses like those of Natasha and Pierre and Marya and Nikolai, in which wonderful children will grow up, on whom the future development of Russian society will depend. This is why Tolstoy attaches such great importance to the family as the fundamental unit of social progress - the correct moral principles and principles inherited from their ancestors will help younger generations build a strong and powerful state.