War and peace Petersburg youth. Entertainment of secular youth (evening at Dolokhov's) "War and Peace"

Public lesson literature, conducted in 1 "B" group

Topic: “Secular aristocracy and advanced nobility. Contrast as the main artistic device in Leo Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace"

Organizing time
You have the right to determine your attitude to what will happen now. You can pretend to be present at the lesson, or you can take part, which I would like very much, to organize it. So, following our long tradition, I invite you to a dialogue:
- dialogue with me;
- dialogue with oneself;
- dialogue with each other
and to a dialogue with Lvov Nikolayevich Tolstoy and his heroes, which we will talk about in the lesson.
And now let me ask you a question that, at first glance, is not related to the topic. Is it hard to be human? Have you ever had moments in your life when you wanted to be someone, but not a person?
(Student answers)
And here is the opinion of one poet on this subject:(music Melody of autumn Chopin )

Man does not want to be a flower
Even if the bright bee
From it with a skillful proboscis
Sweetness for the future took.
The spider magically pulls the thread,
The wolf hears all the rustles in the darkness
The man doesn't want to be
Only man on earth.
Asked for flowers and spiders
He asked the animals what they are:
Which of you living is ready
Get into our human skin.
Everyone shook their heads:
Say, it is better in a field or a hollow.
'Cause it's damn hard, they say
To be called a man on earth.

What is the difficulty of being human?
(Students' answers)

The novel "War and Peace" is a hymn to the Russian people, their valor and honor, their selfless steadfastness and devotion to the motherland. For the first time in literature, Tolstoy depicted thinking heroes, looking for an answer to the most difficult questions of human existence, with high intelligence.
goal setting .

What do you think, what will be discussed in the lesson, based on the above thoughts, from the topic of the lesson? (answers)

Today in the lesson we will talk about human qualities, about how the writer characterizes the life of high society and the middle nobility, about the meaning of life, about the main artistic technique, which Tolstoy used in the work - about the contrast as the main thin. acceptance of the novel

Speech turns are written on the board, which will help in answering to express your opinion.: (print)

It seems to me, I think it is noticeable that, probably, from my point of view, I understand that….

Because...because...although...on the one hand...on the other hand...thus...

Have you ever been to a salon? L.N. Tolstoy invites us. Let's try to get to know the characters.

Quiz-quiz “Whose face is this?”

“She got up with the same unchanging smile ... with which she entered the living room.

(Helen)

“The face was hazy with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident obnoxiousness.

(Hippolytus)

“With a grimace that spoiled him Beautiful face he turned away…”

(Prince Andrew)

“…bright expression of a flat face.

(Prince Vasily)

“The restrained smile that constantly played on his face…”

(Anna Pavlovna)

Do we have faces or masks? Prove it.

Before us are masks, since their expression does not change during the evening. L. Tolstoy conveys this with the help of the epithets “unchanging”, “invariably”, “constantly”.

You were divided into groups in advance, each member of the group had his own homework

1 group . Evening in the salon Scherer.

Card №1В social status

characters and their relationship to each other.

Card №1B topics of conversation: how interesting they are to the conversation

Watching the beginning of the movie.

We hear the characters, and they speak French. Doesn't it bother you that there is a war with Napoleon, and in St. Petersburg the highest nobility speaks French?

Why does L. Tolstoy introduce French speech?

So it was accepted. Knowledge of the French language was mandatory for a nobleman.

So, before us are educated people. It can be assumed that on French we will hear philosophical thoughts about life, witty remarks, interesting conversations

About what in question?

role reading dialogue (in Russian).

This is the birth of gossip about Ippolite the ladies' man, about his connection with Princess Bolkonskaya, about the unenviable position of the "officer" Prince Andrei.

- Prove that this is gossip (falsehood).

-Prince Andrei later characterizes his wife as a rare woman with whom you can be calm for your honor.

- She pulled away when Ippolit "forgot" to remove his hands, giving a shawl.

- She gets into the carriage, paying no attention to Hippolyte's cries .

Well, education, knowledge foreign languages not always a sign of intelligence, decency, internal culture. Perhaps L. Tolstoy introduces French speech in order to show that an inner emptiness is hidden behind the external gloss of some heroes.

Card No. 1A Pierre's behavior and the hostess's attitude towards him

Card No. 2A highlight the comparisons used by the author, what do they indicate?

We hardly see sincere, living people. The writer speaks about the lack of spirituality in most of the guests and in the hostess herself. This is the highest light. And what is the average advanced nobility?

Group 2: (also on cards) Pierre Bezukhov visiting Prince Andrei

Card No. 2b Andrey at the evening at Sherer's.Describe the portrait, manner of speaking and behaving in society. What features are expressed in his appearance?

Card No. 2B Liza Bolkonskaya at the evening at Scherer's

Card No. 3B Andrey and Pierre's relationship to each other(film excerpt)

Card No. 4A Andrei's monologue about Bonoparte. How did you understand it?

Group 3 Entertainment secular youth:

Dolokhov's behavior

Anatole Kuragin in the characterization of his father, in behavior at the evening

Fun with a bear and its consequences(film excerpt)

The attitude of Andrei Bolkonsky and Count Rostov to such a pastime

Would you like to continue communication with such representatives of the aristocracy as Vasily Kuragin, Dolokhov and others? No, why? Then we leave the salon.

4 group Name day at the Rostovs

The attitude of the Count and Countess Rostov to the guests and to each other

The behavior and interests of children in the Rostov house

The atmosphere during the birthday dinner (the topic of conversation, how interesting they are to the conversation, the general atmosphere)(film excerpt)

Group 5 Events in the house of Count Bezukhov

The behavior of Prince Vasily Kuragin, his interests

The behavior of Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya, its reasons

Boris Drubetskoy and Pierre Bezukhov in this situation

Group 6 Bolkonsky family in Bald Mountains

- old prince's past

- occupations and interests of the local nobleman

- Princess Marya Bolkonskaya

- relationship between father and children

Outcome: roman postriplets on contrasts. In the considered episodes, the main layers of Russian society are shown, the main storylines reflecting the complexity and diversity of life. High society is hypocritical and prim, the middle nobility is the exact opposite: hospitable and cordial, everything here is sincere and humane

Outcome (about morality in society)

Reflection:

something I thought about especially seriously while I was working on the episodes…

I was surprised...

It was especially important for me to understand...

Teacher: Yes, some answers may take a lifetime to find.

High society... The very meaning of these words implies something better, elite, chosen. The highest position, origin implies and higher education and upbringing the highest degree development. What is the top of Russian society in the first quarter of the 19th century, as L. N. Tolstoy saw it, working on the pages of "War and Peace"?

Anna Scherer's salon, the living room in the Rostovs' house, the study of Bolkonsky, who retired to his Bald Mountains, the house of the dying Count Bezukhov, Dolokhov's bachelor apartment, where the feast takes place

"golden youth", the reception room of the commander-in-chief near Austerlitz, vivid images, pictures, situations, like drops of water that make up the ocean, characterize the high society, and most importantly - show us L. N. Tolstoy's opinion about it. The salon of Anna Scherer, where seemingly close friends of the hostess gathered, is twice compared by the author with a weaving workshop: the hostess follows the “uniform buzzing of the machines” - a continuous conversation, organizing guests in circles around the narrator. They come here on business: Prince Kuragin - to find rich brides for his dissolute sons, Anna Mikhailovna - to achieve patronage and attach her son as an adjutant. Here the beautiful Helen, not having her own opinion, copies the mistress's facial expression, as if putting on a mask, and is reputed to be smart; the little princess repeats memorized phrases and is considered charming; Pierre's sincere, intelligent reasoning is taken by those around him as an absurd trick, and a stupid anecdote told by Prince Hippolyte in bad Russian is universally approved; Prince Andrei is so alien here that his isolation seems arrogant.

The atmosphere in the house of the dying Count Bezukhov is striking: conversations of those present on the topic of which of them is closer to the dying, a fight for a portfolio with a will, exaggerated attention to Pierre, who suddenly became the sole heir to the title and fortune, from an illegitimate son - a millionaire. The desire of Prince Vasily to marry Pierre to the beautiful, soulless Helen looks extremely immoral, especially on the last evening when the trap closes: Pierre is congratulated on the declaration of love that did not take place, knowing that out of innate decency he will not refute these words.

And the fun of the “golden youth”, who knows perfectly well that parents will hush up bullying of the quarter. The people of this circle seem to be unfamiliar with elementary concepts of honor: Dolokhov, having received a wound, boasts of it to his superiors, as if he did not fulfill his duty in battle, but tried to regain lost privileges; Anatole Kuragin laughingly asks his father what regiment he belongs to. Moreover, for Dolokhov there is no sincere friendly affection, using Pierre's money and location, he compromises his wife and tries to behave boorishly with Pierre himself. Having received a refusal from Sonya, he soullessly, prudently beats the “lucky rival” Nikolai Rostov at cards, knowing that this loss is ruinous for him.

Staff officers near Austerlitz allow themselves to laugh contemptuously at the sight of General Mack, the commander of the defeated Allied army. They are put in their place only by the angry intervention of Prince Andrei: “We are either officers who serve our tsar and fatherland and rejoice in our common success, and grieve over our common failure, or we are lackeys who do not care about the master’s business.” During the Battle of Shengraben, none of the staff officers was able to convey the order to retreat to Captain Tushin, because they were afraid to get to the place of hostilities, preferring to be in front of the commander. Only Andrei Bolkonsky not only transmitted the order, but also helped to take out the surviving guns of the battery, and then interceded at the military council for the captain, expressing his opinion about the decisive role of Tushin during the battle.

Even marriage for many of them is a stepping stone to a career. Boris Drubetskoy, about to marry a rich bride - ugly and unpleasant to him Julie Karagina - "convinces himself that he can always get a job so that he can see her as little as possible." The possibility of wasting "a month of melancholic service under Julie" in vain forces him to speed up events and finally explain himself. Julie, knowing that for her "Nizhny Novgorod estates and Penza forests" she deserves it, will make him utter even insincere, but all the words put on such an occasion.

One of the most disgusting figures of high society is the recognized beauty Helen, soulless, cold, greedy and deceitful. "Where you are - there is debauchery, evil!" - Pierre throws in her face, protecting not himself anymore (it was easier for him to free himself from her presence, having issued a power of attorney to manage half of the estates), but relatives. When her husband is alive, she consults which of the high-ranking nobles she should marry first, easily changes her faith when she needs it.

Even such a nationwide rise of Russia as Patriotic War, cannot change these low, deceitful, soulless people. The first feeling of Boris Drubetskoy, who accidentally found out earlier than others about Napoleon's invasion of our territory, is not the indignation and anger of a patriot, but the joy of knowing that he can show others that he knows more than others. The “patriotic” desire of Julie Karagina to speak only in Russian and her letter full of gallicisms to a friend laugh, a fine for each french word in the salon of Anna Scherer. With what irony Leo Tolstoy mentions a hand studded with rings that covers a small pile of lint - the noble lady's contribution to helping the hospital! How disgusting and disgusting is Berg, who, during the general retreat from Moscow, buys "a chiffonier and a toilet" on the cheap and sincerely does not understand why the Rostovs do not share the joy of acquiring it and do not give him a cart.

With what a bright feeling of joy that there are other representatives of high society, the best people of Russia, Leo Tolstoy shows us his favorite heroes. Firstly, unlike Moscow and St. Petersburg salons, we hear Russian speech in their living rooms, we see a truly Russian desire to help our neighbor, pride, dignity, unwillingness to bow before the wealth and nobility of others, self-sufficiency of the soul.

We see the old prince Bolkonsky, who wished his son to start his service from the lower ranks, who accompanied him to the war with a wish to preserve honor more life. When Napoleon invades his native land, he is in no hurry to evacuate, but, putting on his general's uniform with all the awards, he is going to organize a people's militia. Last words prince, dying of grief, which caused an apoplexy: "The soul hurts." My heart aches for Russia and for Princess Marya. And so she, angrily rejecting the offer of a companion to resort to the patronage of the French, offers the peasants to open barns with bread free of charge. “I am from Smolensk” - answers the question about his participation in the retreat and the losses that were incurred during it, Prince Andrei, and how these words of his are similar to the words of a simple soldier! Bolkonsky, who had previously paid so much attention to strategy and tactics, before the battle of Borodino gives priority not to calculation, but to the patriotic feeling of anger, insult, resentment, the desire to defend the homeland to the last - to that "that is in me, in Timonin, in every Russian soldier."

His soul hurts for the fatherland - with Pierre, he not only equips a whole regiment at his own expense, but also, having decided that only the “Russian Bezukhov” can save his homeland, remains in Moscow to kill Napoleon. Young Petya Rostov leaves for the war and dies in battle. Creates behind enemy lines partisan detachment Vasily Denisov. With an indignant cry: "What are we - some kind of Germans?" - forces parents to unload their property and give carts to the wounded Natasha Rostova. It's not about ruining things or saving things - it's about preserving the wealth of the soul.

It is before them - the best representatives of high society that the question of transformations will arise. Russian state, they will not be able to put up with serfdom. Because recently, side by side with ordinary peasants, they defended the Fatherland from a common enemy. They will become at the origins of the Decembrist societies of Russia and oppose the stronghold of autocracy and serfdom, against the Drubets and Kuragins, Bergs and Zherkovs - those who boast high position and wealth, but low in feelings and poor in soul.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Question: How does Nikolai Rostov save Princess Marya? In what volume, part and chapter does this happen?

Answer: 3 volume 2 part 13 and 14 chapters

Question: How about the order of the commander-in-chief to stay in simple overcoats reacted officers and why?

Answer: T. 1 h. 2 ch. 1. Review of the regiment. Kutuzov. Allies. The officers were given the order, but they did not explain the reason, which was contrary to the charter. Well, maybe not the charter, but the army code of conduct.

Question: Help please!!! We need the main bad features of Marya Bolkonskaya.

Answer: Here you need to describe some trait of Marya, and explain why, in your opinion, she is bad. For example, devotion to Marya (fate, man, moral ideals...) can be regarded both as a disadvantage and as the most important of the virtues of a woman. Here you have to prove yourself as a person.

Question: Help, can anyone remember anything about the wife of Prince Vasily Kuragin - Alina?

Answer: In the third volume - on the one hand, she condemned, but on the other hand, she was very jealous of Helen, how happy she could be, treated men “cleverly” and managed to come up with reasons for her divorce.

Question: Partisan movement Denisov and Dolokhov. Say part and chapter!!!

Answer: Volume 4, third part, right there

Question: Pierre loves Natasha more than Andrei?

Answer: Of course - more, in the sense - longer. “He said that in his whole life he loved and loves only one woman and that this woman can never belong to him.” This is Pierre to the Frenchman Rambal, whom he saved.

Question: How old is Liza Bolkonskaya at the beginning of the first volume?

Answer: 16 years old

Question: Why can Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky be called the best people? What can be said, what examples can be given?

Answer: Both are noble. Slightly different outlook on life. In some situations, they agree, somewhere they argue and defend their idea (which rarely happens), but this is a big plus for friendship between Pierre and Andrei Bolkonsk. It's just that friendship is not possible without it. As if with a tight invisible thread, life itself brings them together so that in annoying moments for them they feel moral support in themselves, supporting each other and loving. Pierre, without any flattery, always sincerely and politely says to his friend: “How glad I am to see you!”. And it's really sincere and believable. Bolkonsky always answers the same: with a meek or humble smile, or with the words: "I'm glad too!" Do not be in the novel of Count Bezukhov, who he became after the death of his father, or Andrei Bolkonsky, maybe their life turned out quite differently. The main thing that unites them is that they always wanted to find a sincere and decent person in the world, to whom you can pour out your whole soul and at the same time not be afraid that that person will betray or deceive you. On this they agreed. We found each other and fell in love as brothers love each other.

Question: What three mistakes did Pierre Bezukhov make?

Answer: Perhaps these: wild life, marriage to Helen, joining the Masonic community. After these actions, being young and inexperienced, he lost most of his fortune, left by his father as an inheritance.

Question: What is the secret of Natasha Rostova's success at the first ball?

Answer: In her innocent beauty and a bit of her ability to dance.

Question: Tell me, which of the film adaptations of War and Peace was filmed exactly according to the book?

Answer: In the old one (1965, dir. Bondarchuk, 4 episodes), everything is accurate, but thoughts, feelings and reasoning are revealed by 20 percent. So you can’t not read it.

Question: What was the relationship between the guests in A.P. Scherer's salon?

Answer: Deliberate, devoid of any sincerity. They are not interested in communication in the full sense of the word, but gossip and information that can be useful to them, which will help them take a higher place in society or solve personal issues.

Question: Where is the description of Pierre's entry into the Freemasons?

Answer: Book 1, v.2, part 2, chapter 3.

Question: How many times was Prince Andrei Bolkonsky wounded and where?

Answer: The first time was during a counterattack near Austerlitz with a bullet or buckshot (I don't remember) in the head. The second - near Borodino, multiple shrapnel wound.

Question: Please describe Dolokhov.

Answer: Thin lips, light curly hair, blue eyes. always retains sobriety of mind, even when drunk. known in St. Petersburg as a rake and reveler. was not rich, but he was respected.

Question: Where do these words “all this come from: misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all is nonsense, but here she is real ...”.

Answer: These are the thoughts of Nikolai Rostov when he came home after losing cards to Dolokhov and heard Natasha sing ...

Question: What happens to Natasha after the failed escape? Describe her feelings, talk about her behavior after the failed escape.

Literature lesson in X grade

teacher first qualification category

MAOU« Lyceum №36» Leninsky district of Saratov

Gurova Irina Petrovna

Subject. The younger generation in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy« War and Peace».

Target. Include students in research activities By main problem topics, develop the skills of analyzing a literary and artistic work, prepare students for an essay on this topic.

Lesson structure.

Entering the learning situation. introduction teachers.

Work with the text of the novel in groups.

Work with information sheets.

Individual task. Work on the diaries of Leo Tolstoy (student-literary critic)

Summarizing. Exit from the learning situation. Abstracts for writing.

During the classes.

1. Introduction by the teacher.

Today in the lesson we will try to comprehend everything that is connected with the image life ideals young heroes of the novel, we will observe their attitude to people, to the Fatherland, to events that determine not only their fate, but also the fate of the entire generation. Let's try to answer the important questions for us:

which heroes does the writer Count Leo Tolstoy appreciate, respect, and which ones does he despise?

how should one live? What should a person strive for?

Epigraph of the lesson.

In order to live honestly, one must tear, get confused, fight, make mistakes, start and quit, and always fight and lose, and peace is a spiritual meanness.

L.N. Tolstoy.

Note.

Literary critic. In Ozhegov's dictionary we read:« Youth - the age between adolescence and maturity, the period of life at that age».

Teacher's word.

A very mean comment. But it is during this period that either a bad or a wonderful beginning is formed in a person, everything that will then find development in mature years.

All the young people we are going to talk about belonged to the same class, they are educated, very rich or just rich, some are poor. In the life of many there were attempts to resist the blows of fate, not to succumb to injustice. We will observe the death of the soul, the loss of its best qualities and the path of self-improvement.

Teacher. What and how do Tolstoy's characters live?

Main questions of the lesson (Work in groups: filling out information sheets, oral answers).

Why are B. Drubetskoy and people like him uninteresting to Tolstoy?

Why does Berg, a hero who has not committed a single reprehensible act, cause only contempt?

What unites Boris Drubetskoy with Berg?

Pierre, a kind, delicate man, throws angry, contemptuous words in Helen's face:« Where are you, there is debauchery and evil». What explains such an attitude towards his wife?

Why is Helen dying?

What is the true beauty of the ugly heroine of the novel, Princess M. Bolkonskaya, later Countess Rostova?

Leo Tolstoy's favorite heroine is Natasha Rostova. What features make it truly valuable and attractive?

Why does Tolstoy call Sonya, Natasha Rostova's friend, an empty flower?

Do you consider Fedor Dolokhov a positive character?

Next to Dolokhov, we often see Anatoly Kuragin. Why are people like this hero of the novel dangerous?

What is interesting about the image of Nikolai Rostov?

Generalization. Presentation by students and literary critic.

So how should one live, according to Leo Tolstoy? What influences the formation of attitudes and life position young heroes?

The position of Leo Tolstoy. From Tolstoy's diary.

1847 (Tolstoy is only 19 years old).

"17March ... I clearly saw that a disorderly life, which most secular people take as a consequence of youth, is nothing but a consequence of youth, is nothing but a consequence of early depravity of the soul»

General conclusion.

The formation of the attitude of young heroes is influenced by

- environment

- self-education and self-analysis of behavior and actions

- family

Teacher's word.

Now we perceive Leo Tolstoy more clearly:«... tranquility - spiritual meanness».

Intense inner work is what distinguishes any heroes of Leo Tolstoy. A large number of honest and good people, conscientious, obsessed, purposeful, from them on earth purity and faith.

Homework: write conclusions, prepare for an essay.

1. It is obvious that all ideas related to the evaluation of life younger generation in the novel "War and Peace" are determined by the views of L.N. Tolstoy, prevailing in constant search his appointment in his youth. Confirmation of this is the writer's diaries. 1847 On March 17 (Tolstoy is only 19 years old), he writes: “I clearly saw that a disorderly life, which most of the secular people take as a consequence of youth, is nothing but a consequence of the early depravity of the soul. A month later, an equally important confession appeared: "I would be the unhappiest of people if I did not find a goal for my life - a common and useful goal."

2. People are all different. Some need a family, children for happiness, others need material well-being. Fundamentals of well-being - career: position, ranks. In pursuit of a career, young people like Boris Drubetskoy will not squander their mental strength on others. The ideal of their life is well-being, based on calculation, on love and attention only to themselves. Indifferent, they are dangerous because they will stop at nothing on their way to a career. Even love, a holy feeling, can be neglected in selfish interests. Julie Kuragina, overcoming disgust, Boris Drubetskoy will say words of love, not feeling it in his heart. He will always lie, adapt, be cautious, because he is convinced that his ideal of life is undeniably true, and most importantly, achievable. Difficulties, deprivations are a great blessing, because they harden and form a character, whole, fair, but this does not apply to Boris Drubetsky. Difficulties did not harden him, but embittered him. The consequence of this is a persistent desire to live only for oneself.

3. Without a large-scale mind and outstanding abilities, one can live life honestly and benefit the state and family. Tolstoy creates the image of an ideal officer, diligent, faithful, honest, ready to give his life for the Fatherland and the Russian Emperor. What is the purpose of man? Nikolai Rostov does not ask himself this question, although Tolstoy affirms the need for self-education and self-improvement. He does what his family expects from him. The origins of his life behavior are in a family where caring for each other, honesty towards each other is the law of life, brought up by the exceptional love of the Count and Countess Rostovs.

4. One of the most valuable properties of young people is the ability for internal changes, the desire for self-education, for moral quest. But moral tormenting questions never confused Helen's soul. The falseness that had taken root in the family absorbed Helen as well. The family never discussed what was good and what was bad. Neither Helen nor her brother understand that, in addition to their pleasure, there is also the peace of other people. Tolstoy, deliberately emphasizing Helen's beauty, helps us understand Helen's spiritual deformity. Beauty and her youth are repulsive, because. this beauty is not warmed by any spiritual impulses.

5. Many of Tolstoy's heroes have a need for deep introspection. This need in young years contributes to rapprochement with people, is the source of joy. Already in a lonely girlhood, Princess Marya makes a discovery about the imperfection of human nature, and therefore seeks to find the truth in people's relationships. Having married, she brings refinement, the warmth of confidential communication into the existence of the family. She creates a bright atmosphere in the house, moral formation, the upbringing of children is given completely. It cannot be otherwise, because she is from the Bolkonsky family, where everyone lives in good conscience, they follow the "road of honor."

6. Tolstoy does not idealize his characters. On the contrary, it gives them the right to make mistakes. However, Dolokhov is almost never wrong. He acts deliberately cruelly: he takes revenge for not being rich, he takes revenge for the fact that he does not have patrons, like many others. He chose his own path, but on this path there is no service, goodness and justice. He could choose a different path, because he is smart, brave, impudent (worthy qualities of an officer), but he chooses this one, thereby dooming himself to mental loneliness.

Creating the image of Pierre Bezukhov, L. N. Tolstoy started from specific life observations. People like Pierre were often encountered in the Russian life of that time. This is Alexander Muravyov, and Wilhelm Küchelbecker, to whom Pierre is close with his eccentricity and absent-mindedness and directness. Contemporaries believed that Tolstoy endowed Pierre with the features of his own personality. One of the features of the depiction of Pierre in the novel is his opposition to the environment of the nobility. It is no coincidence that he is the illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov; it is no coincidence that his bulky, clumsy figure stands out sharply against the general background. When Pierre finds himself in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer, he causes her anxiety by the inconsistency of his manners with the etiquette of the living room. He is significantly different from all visitors to the salon and with his smart, natural look. By contrast, the author presents Pierre's judgments and Hippolyte's vulgar chatter. Contrasting his hero with the environment, Tolstoy reveals his high spiritual qualities: sincerity, spontaneity, high conviction and noticeable softness. The evening at Anna Pavlovna's ends with Pierre, to the displeasure of the audience, defending the ideas french revolution, admires Napoleon as the head of revolutionary France, defends the ideas of the republic and freedom, showing the independence of his views.

Leo Tolstoy draws appearance his hero: this is "a massive, fat young man, with a cropped head, glasses, light trousers, a high frill and a brown tailcoat." The writer pays special attention to Pierre's smile, which makes his face childish, kind, stupid and as if asking for forgiveness. She seems to say: "Opinions are opinions, and you see what a kind and nice fellow I am."

Pierre is sharply opposed to those around him in the episode of the death of the old man Bezukhov. Here he is very different from the careerist Boris Drubetskoy, who, at the instigation of his mother, is playing a game, trying to get his share in the inheritance. Pierre, on the other hand, is embarrassed and ashamed of Boris.

And now he is the heir to an immensely rich father. Having received the title of count, Pierre immediately finds himself in the center of attention of secular society, where he was pleased, caressed and, as it seemed to him, loved. And he plunges into the stream of new life, obeying the atmosphere of great light. So he finds himself in the company of "golden youth" - Anatole Kuragin and Dolokhov. Under the influence of Anatole, he spends his days in revelry, unable to break out of this cycle. Pierre wastes his vitality, showing his characteristic lack of will. Prince Andrei tries to convince him that this dissolute life does not suit him very much. But it is not so easy to pull him out of this "whirlpool". However, I note that Pierre is immersed in him more in body than in soul.

Pierre's marriage to Helen Kuragina dates back to this time. He perfectly understands her insignificance, outright stupidity. "There is something nasty in that feeling," he thought, "that she aroused in me, something forbidden." However, Pierre's feelings are influenced by her beauty and unconditional feminine charm, although Tolstoy's hero does not experience true, deep love. Time will pass, and the "twisted" Pierre will hate Helen and feel her depravity with all his heart.

In this plan important point became a duel with Dolokhov, which took place after Pierre received an anonymous letter at a dinner in honor of Bagration that his wife was cheating on him with his former friend. Pierre does not want to believe this because of the purity and nobility of his nature, but at the same time he believes the letter, because he knows Helen and her lover well. Dolokhov's brazen trick at the table unbalances Pierre and leads to a duel. It is quite obvious to him that now he hates Helen and is ready to break with her forever, and at the same time break with the world in which she lived.

The attitude of Dolokhov and Pierre to the duel is different. The first goes to the duel with the firm intention of killing, and the second suffers from the fact that he needs to shoot a person. In addition, Pierre never held a pistol in his hands and, in order to quickly end this heinous deed, somehow pulls the trigger, and when he injures the enemy, barely holding back his sobs, rushes to him. "Stupid!.. Death... Lies..." he repeated, walking through the snow into the forest. So a separate episode, a quarrel with Dolokhov, becomes a frontier for Pierre, opening up a world of lies in front of him, in which he was destined to be for some time.

Begins new stage Pierre's spiritual quest when, in a state of deep moral crisis, he meets the freemason Bazdeev on his way from Moscow. Striving for the high meaning of life, believing in the possibility of achieving brotherly love, Pierre enters the religious and philosophical society of Masons. Here he seeks spiritual and moral renewal, hopes for a rebirth to a new life, longs for personal improvement. He also wants to correct the imperfection of life, and this matter seems to him not at all difficult. “How easy, how little effort is needed to do so much Good,” thought Pierre, “and how little we care about it!”

And so, under the influence of Masonic ideas, Pierre decides to free the peasants belonging to him from serfdom. He follows the same path that Onegin walked, although he also takes new steps in this direction. But unlike Pushkin's hero he has huge estates in the Kyiv province, which is why he has to act through the general manager.

Possessing childish purity and gullibility, Pierre does not assume that he will have to face the meanness, deceit and devilish resourcefulness of businessmen. He takes the construction of schools, hospitals, shelters for a radical improvement in the life of the peasants, while all this was ostentatious and burdensome for them. Pierre's undertakings not only did not alleviate the hard fate of the peasants, but also worsened their situation, because the predation of the rich from the trading village and the robbery of the peasants, hidden from Pierre, were connected here.

Neither the transformations in the countryside nor Freemasonry justified the hopes that Pierre had placed on them. He is disappointed in the goals of the Masonic organization, which now seems to him deceitful, vicious and hypocritical, where everyone is primarily concerned with a career. In addition, the ritual procedures characteristic of Masons now seem to him an absurd and ridiculous performance. "Where am I?" he thinks, "what am I doing? Are they laughing at me? Won't I be ashamed to remember this?" Feeling the futility of Masonic ideas, which did not change him at all own life, Pierre "suddenly felt the impossibility of continuing his former life."

Tolstoy's hero goes through a new moral test. They became a real, great love for Natasha Rostova. At first, Pierre did not think about his new feeling, but it grew and became more and more powerful; a special sensitivity arose, intense attention to everything that concerned Natasha. And he leaves for a while from public interests to the world of personal, intimate experiences that Natasha opened for him.

Pierre is convinced that Natasha loves Andrei Bolkonsky. She is animated only because Prince Andrei enters, that he hears his voice. "Something very important is going on between them," Pierre thinks. Complicated feeling does not leave him. He carefully and tenderly loves Natasha, but at the same time he is faithfully and devotedly friends with Andrei. Pierre sincerely wishes them happiness, and at the same time their love becomes a great grief for him.

The aggravation of spiritual loneliness chains Pierre to the most important issues of our time. He sees before him "a tangled, terrible knot of life." On the one hand, he reflects, people erected forty forty churches in Moscow, confessing the Christian law of love and forgiveness, and on the other hand, yesterday they whipped a soldier and the priest let him kiss the cross before execution. Thus grows a crisis in Pierre's soul.

Natasha, refusing Prince Andrei, showed friendly spiritual sympathy for Pierre. And a huge, disinterested happiness swept over him. Natasha, overwhelmed with grief and remorse, evokes such a flash of ardent love in Pierre’s soul that, unexpectedly for himself, he makes a kind of confession to her: “If I were not me, but the most beautiful, intelligent and best person in the world ... I would this minute on my knees ask for your hand and your love. "In this new enthusiastic state, Pierre forgets about the social and other issues that bothered him so much. Personal happiness and boundless feeling overwhelm him, gradually the incompleteness of life, deeply and broadly understood by him.

The events of the war of 1812 produce a sharp change in Pierre's worldview. They gave him the opportunity to get out of the state of egoistic isolation. He begins to be seized by a restlessness that is incomprehensible to him, and although he does not know how to understand the events that are taking place, he inevitably joins the stream of reality and thinks about his participation in the fate of the Fatherland. And it's not just thinking. He prepares the militia, and then goes to Mozhaisk, on the field of the Battle of Borodino, where a new, unfamiliar world of ordinary people opens before him.

Borodino becomes a new stage in the development of Pierre. Seeing for the first time the militia men dressed in white shirts, Pierre caught the spirit of spontaneous patriotism emanating from them, expressed in a clear determination to steadfastly defend native land. Pierre realized that this is the force that drives events - the people. With all his heart he understood the secret meaning of the soldier's words: "They want to pile on all the people, one word - Moscow."

Pierre now not only observes what is happening, but reflects, analyzes. Here he managed to feel that "hidden warmth of patriotism" that made the Russian people invincible. True, in battle, on the Raevsky battery, Pierre is experiencing a moment panic fear, but it was this horror "that allowed him to especially deeply understand the power of national courage. After all, these artillerymen were firm and calm all the time, to the very end, and now Pierre wants to be a soldier, just a soldier, in order to" enter this common life"with the whole being.

Under the influence of people from the people, Pierre decides to participate in the defense of Moscow, for which it is necessary to stay in the city. Wanting to accomplish a feat, he intends to kill Napoleon in order to save the peoples of Europe from the one who brought them so much suffering and evil. Naturally, he dramatically changes his attitude towards the personality of Napoleon, the former sympathy is replaced by hatred for the despot. However, many obstacles, as well as a meeting with the French captain Rumbel, change his plans, and he abandons the plan to assassinate the French emperor.

A new stage in Pierre's quest was his stay in French captivity, where he ends up after a fight with French soldiers. This new period the life of the hero becomes a further step towards rapprochement with the people. Here, in captivity, Pierre had a chance to see the true bearers of evil, the creators of the new "order", to feel the inhumanity of the morals of Napoleonic France, relations built on domination and submission. He saw massacres and tried to find out their reasons.

He experiences an unusual shock when he is present at the execution of people accused of arson. “In his soul,” writes Tolstoy, “it is as if the spring on which everything was held up has suddenly been pulled out.” And only a meeting with Platon Karataev in captivity allowed Pierre to find peace of mind. Pierre became close to Karataev, fell under his influence and began to look at life as a spontaneous and natural process. Faith in goodness and truth arises again, was born internal independence and freedom. Under the influence of Karataev, Pierre's spiritual revival takes place. Like this simple peasant, Pierre begins to love life in all its manifestations, despite all the vicissitudes of fate.

Close rapprochement with the people after his release from captivity leads Pierre to Decembristism. Tolstoy talks about this in the epilogue of his novel. Over the past seven years, the old mood of passivity, contemplation has been replaced by a thirst for action and active participation in public life. Now, in 1820, Pierre's anger and indignation are social orders and political oppression in his native Russia. He says to Nikolai Rostov: "There is theft in the courts, in the army there is only one stick, shagistika, settlements - they torment the people, they stifle enlightenment. What is young, honestly, is ruined!"

Pierre is convinced that it is the duty of all honest people consists in. to counteract this. It is no coincidence that Pierre becomes a member of a secret organization and even one of the main organizers of the secret political society. The association of "honest people," he believes, should play a significant role in eliminating social evil.

Personal happiness now enters Pierre's life. Now he is married to Natasha, experiences a deep love for her and his children. Happiness with an even and calm light illuminates his whole life. The main conviction that Pierre took out of long life quest and which is close to Tolstoy himself, is: "As long as there is life, there is happiness."