Pierre Bezukhov: character characteristics. Life path, path of searches of Pierre Bezukhov. Ways of searching for the meaning of life by Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov What is the meaning of Pierre's life

V artistic world Tolstoy has heroes who persistently and purposefully strive for complete harmony with the world, tirelessly looking for the meaning of life... They are not interested in selfish goals, secular intrigues, empty and meaningless conversations in high-society salons. They are easily recognizable among haughty, self-righteous faces. These, of course, include the most striking images of the novel "War and Peace" - Andrey Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov... They stand out noticeably among the heroes of the Russian Literature XIX century with its originality and intellectual wealth. Completely different in character, Prince Andrei and Pierre Bezukhov have much in common in their ideological aspirations and quests.

Tolstoy said: "People are like rivers ..." - emphasizing with this comparison the versatility and complexity of the human personality. The spiritual beauty of the favorite heroes of the writer - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - manifests itself in the tireless search for the meaning of life, in dreams of activities useful for the whole people. Their path in life is the path of passionate seeking, leading to truth and goodness. Pierre and Andrei are internally close to each other and alien to the world of the Kuragin and Sherer.

Tolstoy chose dialogue as a means of revealing the inner world of the heroes. The disputes between Andrei and Pierre are not idle chatter and not a duel of ambitions, it is the desire to sort out their own thoughts and try to understand the thoughts of another person. Both heroes live a tense spiritual life and draw a common meaning from current impressions. Their relationship is in the nature of a spacious friendship. Each of them goes their own way. They do not need everyday communication, they do not seek to find out as many details as possible about each other's life. But they sincerely respect each other and feel that the truth of the other has been obtained by suffering as well as his own, that it has grown out of life, that life is behind every argument in the dispute.

The first acquaintance with Andrei Bolkonsky does not cause much sympathy. A proud and self-satisfied young man with dry features and a tired, bored look - this is how Anna Pavlovna Sherer's guests see him. But when we learn that the expression on his face was caused by the fact that “all those who were in the living room were not only familiar, but already tired of him so that he was very bored to look at them and listen to them,” interest arises in the hero. Further, Tolstoy reports that a brilliant and idle, empty life does not satisfy Prince Andrei and he does his best to break the vicious circle in which he finds himself.

In an effort to get out of the secular and family life that bored him, Andrei Bolkonsky is going to war. He dreams of glory, similar to Napoleonic, dreams of accomplishing a feat. “After all, what is fame? - says Prince Andrew. “The same love for others ...” The feat accomplished by him during the Battle of Austerlitz, when he ran ahead of everyone with a banner in his hands, outwardly looked very impressive: he was noticed and appreciated even by Napoleon. But, having committed a heroic act, Andrei for some reason did not feel any delight and elation. Probably because at that moment, when he fell, seriously wounded, a new high truth was revealed to him, together with a high endless sky, spreading a blue vault over him. Striving for fame leads Andrey to a deep spiritual crisis. The sky of Austerlitz becomes for him a symbol of a high understanding of life: “How then have I not seen this high sky before? And how happy I am that I finally got to know him. Yes! Everything is empty, everything is deception, except for this endless sky. " Andrei Bolkonsky realized that the natural life of nature and man is more significant and important than the war and the glory of Napoleon.

Against the background of this clear sky, all the former dreams and aspirations seemed to Andrey small and insignificant, the same as the former idol. A reassessment of values ​​took place in his soul. What seemed to him beautiful and sublime turned out to be empty and vain. And what he so diligently fenced off from is simple and quiet family life, - now seemed to him a desirable world, full of happiness and harmony. Further developments- the birth of a child, the death of his wife - forced Prince Andrey to come to the conclusion that life in its simple manifestations, life for himself, for his family is the only thing left for him. But the mind of Prince Andrey continued to work hard, he read a lot and pondered over the eternal questions: what power rules the world and what is the meaning of life.

Andrei tried to live a simple, calm life, caring for his son and improving the lives of his serfs: he made three hundred people free farmers, the rest replaced corvee with quitrent. But the state of depression, the feeling of the impossibility of happiness indicated that all the transformations could not fully occupy his mind and heart.

Pierre Bezukhov followed different paths in life, but he was worried about the same problems as Prince Andrei. “Why live and what am I? What is life, what is death? " - Pierre was painfully looking for answers to these questions. At the beginning of the novel, at an evening with Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Pierre defends the ideas of the French revolution, admires Napoleon, wants to "produce a republic in Russia, then be Napoleon himself ...". Not finding the meaning of life yet, Pierre rushes about, makes mistakes. Suffice it to recall the story of the bear, which caused a lot of noise in the world. But the biggest mistake Pierre made during this period was his marriage to the low and vicious beauty Helen Kuragina. The duel with Dolokhov opened a new view of the world to Pierre, he realized that it was impossible to live the way he lived.

The search for the truth and meaning of life leads him to the Freemasons. He longs to "re-birth the vicious human race." In the teachings of the Masons, Pierre is attracted by the ideas of "equality, brotherhood and love", therefore, first of all, he decides to alleviate the plight of serfs. It seems to him that he has finally found the purpose and meaning of life: "And only now, when I ... try ... to live for others, only now I understood all the happiness of life." But Pierre is still too naive to understand that all his transformations lead nowhere. Tolstoy, talking about Pierre's activities on the estate, sneers at his beloved hero.

Returning from a trip to the estates, Pierre stops by Prince Andrew. Their meeting, which was of great importance for both and largely determined their further path, took place in the Bogucharovo estate. They met at the moment when each of them thought that he had found the truth. But if Pierre's truth was happy, he recently joined it and it overwhelmed his entire being so much that he wanted to quickly reveal it to his friend, then Prince Andrew's truth is bitter and devastating, and he did not want to share his thoughts with anyone.

Andrey's final revival to life took place thanks to his meeting with Natasha Rostova. Communication with her opens up to Andrey a new, previously unknown, side of life - love, beauty, poetry. But it is with Natasha that he is not destined to be happy, because there is no complete mutual understanding between them. Natasha loves Andrei, but does not understand and does not know him. And she remains a mystery to him with her own, special inner world. If Natasha lives every moment, is not able to wait and postpone the moment of happiness until a certain time, then Andrei is able to love at a distance, finding a special charm in anticipation of the upcoming wedding with his girlfriend. Separation turned out to be too difficult a test for Natasha, because, unlike Andrei, she was not able to think about anything other than love.

The story with Anatol Kuragin destroyed the possible happiness of Natasha and Prince Andrei. Proud and proud Andrei could not forgive Natasha for her mistake. And she, experiencing painful remorse, considered herself unworthy of such a noble, ideal person and renounced all the joys of life. Fate severs loving people, leaving in their souls the bitterness and pain of disappointment. But she will connect them before Andrey's death, because Patriotic War 1812 will change a lot in their characters.

When Napoleon entered the borders of Russia and began to rapidly move forward, Andrei Bolkonsky, who hated the war after being seriously wounded at Austerlitz, joined the army, refusing safe and promising service at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief. Commanding the regiment, the proud aristocrat Bolkonsky became close to the soldiers and peasants, learned to value and respect the common people. If at first Prince Andrey tried to excite the courage of the soldiers by walking under the bullets, then, seeing them in battle, he realized that he had nothing to teach them. From that moment on, he began to look at the men in soldier's greatcoats as heroes-patriots who courageously and staunchly defended their Fatherland. So Andrei Bolkonsky came to the conclusion that the success of the army does not depend on the position, weapons or the number of troops, but on the feeling that is in him and in every soldier.

After the meeting in Bogucharovo, Pierre, like Prince Andrei, was expected to experience bitter disappointments, in particular in Freemasonry. Pierre's republican ideas were not shared by his "brothers". In addition, Pierre realized that among the Masons there is hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and careerism. All this led Pierre to a break with the Freemasons and to another mental crisis. As well as for Prince Andrey, the goal of life, the ideal for Pierre became (although he himself did not yet understand and did not realize this) love for Natasha Rostova, darkened by the ties of marriage with Helene. "For what? What for? What's going on in the world? " - these questions did not cease to disturb Bezukhov.

During this period, the second meeting of Pierre and Andrew took place. This time Tolstoy chose Borodino as the place to meet his heroes. A decisive battle for the Russian and French armies took place here, and here took place last meeting the main characters of the novel. At this period, Prince Andrew perceives his life as "badly painted pictures", sums up its results and reflects on the same eternal questions. But the landscape, against the background of which his reflections are given (“... and these birches with their light and shadow, and these curly clouds, and this smoke of bonfires, everything around him was transformed and seemed to be something terrible and threatening”) , a sign that something poetic, eternal and incomprehensible continues to live in his devastated soul. At the same time, he continues to think and be silent. And Pierre wants to know, wants to listen and speak.

Pierre asks Andrey questions, behind which are serious, not yet formed thoughts. Prince Andrew does not want to enter into the conversation. Now Pierre is not only alien to him, but also unpleasant: on him lies the reflection of the life that brought him a lot of suffering. And again, as in Bogucharovo, Prince Andrei begins to speak and, imperceptibly for himself, is drawn into the conversation. This is not even a conversation, but a monologue of Prince Andrey, which is pronounced unexpectedly, passionately and contains bold and unexpected thoughts. He still speaks in a maliciously mocking tone, but this is not anger and emptiness, but the anger and pain of a patriot: speech from an unexpected convulsion that grabbed his throat. "

Pierre listened to his friend, ashamed of his ignorance of military affairs, but at the same time he felt that the moment Russia was experiencing was something very special, and the words of his friend, a professional military man, convinced him of the truth of his feelings. Everything that he saw on that day, with which he thought and reflected, "was illuminated for him with a new light." The parting of Pierre and Andrei cannot be called warm and friendly. But like the last time, their conversation changed the previous ideas of the characters about life and happiness. When Pierre left, Prince Andrey with a new feeling began to think about Natasha, "long and joyfully," with the feeling that he understood her, which had inflicted a serious insult on him. In a conversation with Pierre on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, one can feel the unity of the thoughts of Prince Andrei and the fighting people. Expressing his attitude to events, he says that his thoughts are in tune with the people. The life of Prince Andrei, his search for the meaning of life ends in unity with the people fighting for their native land.

After meeting with Pierre, Prince Andrew passes into a new, completely new for him, phase of life. It matured for a long time, but took shape only after he told Pierre everything about which he had been thinking for so long and painfully. But with this new feeling, according to the author, he could not live. It is symbolic that at the moment of his fatal wound, Andrei experiences a huge craving for a simple earthly life, but immediately thinks about why he is so sorry to part with it. This struggle between earthly passions and love for people is especially acute before his death. Having met Natasha and forgiving her, he feels a surge of vitality, but this quivering and warm feeling is replaced by an unearthly detachment, which is incompatible with life and means death. Revealing in Andrei Bolkonsky many of the remarkable traits of a patriotic nobleman, Tolstoy interrupted his path of searching with a heroic death for the sake of saving his fatherland. And to continue this search for the highest spiritual values, which remained unattainable for Prince Andrey, is destined in the novel to his friend and associate Pierre Bezukhov.

For Pierre, the conversation with Andrey became the initial stage of his spiritual cleansing. All subsequent events: participation in the Battle of Borodino, adventures in Moscow occupied by the enemy, captivity - brought Pierre closer to the people and contributed to his moral transformation. “Be a soldier, just a soldier! .. Enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so ”- such a desire seized Pierre after the Borodino battle. It was in captivity that Bezukhov came to the conviction: "Man was created for happiness." But Pierre does not rest on this either.

In the epilogue, Tolstoy shows Bezukhov as active and intensely thinking as at the beginning of the novel. He managed to carry through time his naive spontaneity, he continues to reflect on eternal unsolvable questions. But if earlier he thought about the meaning of life, now he is thinking about how to protect good and truth. The quest leads Pierre to a secret political society fighting against serfdom and autocracy.

The disputes between Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov about the meaning of life reflect the inner struggle in the writer's soul, which did not stop throughout his life. A person, according to the writer, must constantly reflect, search, make mistakes and search again, for "calmness is a spiritual meanness." Such was he himself, such qualities he endowed the main characters of the novel "War and Peace". Using the example of Prince Andrey and Pierre Bezukhov, Tolstoy shows that no matter how different ways the best representatives of high society go in search of the meaning of life, they come to the same result: the meaning of life is in unity with their native people, in love for this people.

At the beginning of the novel, the reader sees Pierre Bezukhov as a slightly absent-minded, but curious and eager for new impressions young man. He eagerly absorbs conversations about Napoleon, seeks to express his point of view. Twenty-year-old Pierre is full of life, he is interested in everything, so the owner of the salon, Anna Pavlovna Sherer, is afraid of him, and her fear refers to "an intelligent and at the same time timid, observant and natural look that distinguished him from everyone in this living room." Having entered high society for the first time, Pierre is looking for interesting conversations without thinking that naturalness and one's own opinion are "not accepted" to be shown among these people.

Pierre's spontaneity, honesty and kindness dispose to him from the very first pages of the novel. In fact, the search for the meaning of life by Pierre Bezukhov in Tolstoy's novel War and Peace is an illustration of the transformations taking place at that time in the minds of the progressive people of Russia, which resulted in the events of December 1825.

The search for the meaning of life by Pierre Bezukhov

Moral quest for spiritual person- this is a search for guidelines for understanding how to live according to his own principles. The awareness of what is true and what is not change in a person depending on many factors: from age, from environment, from life circumstances. What seems to be the only right thing in certain situations turns out to be absolutely unacceptable in others.

So, young Pierre, being next to Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, admits that revelry and hussars are really not what Pierre needs. But as soon as he leaves the prince, as the charm of the night and the ecstatic mood take their toll over the admonitions of the older comrade. Tolstoy very accurately and vividly conveyed the inner conversations that occur with young people when they follow the principle: "When you can't, but you really want to, you can."

“It would be nice to go to Kuragin,” he thought. But at once he remembered the word of honor given to Prince Andrey not to visit Kuragin.

But immediately, as happens with people who are called spineless, he so passionately wanted to experience this dissolute life so familiar to him that he decided to go. And immediately the thought occurred to him that this word did not mean anything, because even before Prince Andrei, he had also given Prince Anatole his word to be with him; finally, he thought that all these honest words are such conventional things that have no a certain meaning, especially if you realize that maybe tomorrow either he will die, or something so extraordinary will happen to him that it will no longer be either honest or dishonorable. This kind of reasoning, destroying all his decisions and assumptions, often came to Pierre. He went to Kuragin's. "

The older Pierre becomes, the more clearly his true attitude towards life, towards people appears.

He does not even think about what is happening in his environment, it does not occur to him to take part in hot "battles" for the inheritance. Pierre Bezukhov is busy with the main question for himself: "How to live?"

Having received an inheritance and a title, he becomes an enviable groom. But, as Princess Marya sagaciously wrote about Pierre in a letter to her friend Julie: “I cannot share your opinion about Pierre, whom I knew as a child. It seemed to me that he always had a beautiful heart, and this is the quality that I value most in people. As for his inheritance and the role that Prince Vasily played in this, this is very sad for both. Ah, dear friend, the words of our divine savior that it is easier for a camel to enter a needle's ear than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God - these words are terribly true! I pity Prince Vasily and even more Pierre. So young to be weighed down by such a huge state - how many temptations he will have to go through! "

Pierre, now Count Bezukhov, really did not resist the temptation and chose as his wife, though beautiful, but stupid and vile Helen Kuragina, who cheated on him with Dolokhov. Becoming rich and marrying the most beautiful woman Pierre does not at all become happier than he was before.

Having challenged Dolokhov to a duel and wounding him, Pierre does not feel triumph over the winner, he is ashamed of what happened, he looks for his own guilt in all his troubles and mistakes. “But what am I to blame? he asked. - That you got married without loving her, that you deceived yourself and her. "

A thinking person, making mistakes, and realizing his mistakes, educates himself. This is also Pierre - he constantly asks himself questions, creating and shaping his worldview. In search of answers to the main questions for him, he travels to St. Petersburg.

“What's wrong? What well? What should I love, what should I hate? Why live, and what am I? What is life, what is death? What is the power that controls everything? " He asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except for one, not a logical answer, not at all to these questions. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. You will die and you will find out everything - or you will stop asking. " But it was also scary to die. "

The meeting with the Freemason Bazdeev was the next and very important stage in Pierre's life. He absorbs the ideas of inner purification, calls for spiritual work on himself, and, as if reborn, finds for himself a new meaning of life, a new truth.

“Not a trace of the old doubts remained in his soul. He firmly believed in the possibility of a brotherhood of people united for the purpose of supporting each other on the path of virtue, and this was how Freemasonry seemed to him. "

Inspired, Pierre wants to set his peasants free, is trying to implement reforms on his estates: to ease the work of women with children, to abolish corporal punishment, to establish hospitals and schools. And it seems to him that he did it all. After all, women and children, whom he freed from hard work, thank him, and well-dressed peasants come to him with a grateful deputation.

Just after this trip, joyful from the fact that he is doing good to people, Pierre comes to Prince Bolkonsky.

Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky

Although the meeting with the "frowned and aged" Prince Andrey surprised Pierre, it did not cool his ardor. “He was ashamed to express all his new, Masonic thoughts, especially those renewed and excited in him by his last trip... He restrained himself, was afraid to be naive; at the same time he irresistibly wanted to show his friend as soon as possible that he was now a completely different, better Pierre than the one who had been in Petersburg. "

Tolstoy's novel begins with the search for the meaning of life by Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky, and this search continues throughout the narrative. These two people seem to complement each other - an enthusiastic and carried away Pierre and a serious and practical Prince Andrew. Each of them goes his own way, full of ups and downs, joys and disappointments, but they are united by the fact that they both want to benefit people, strive to find truth and justice in life.

Andrei Bolkonsky, despite the fact that outwardly he was very distrustful of Pierre's entry into the Masons, over time he himself will become a member of the Masonic lodge. And those transformations in the position of the peasants that Pierre did not manage to do, Prince Andrew will quite successfully implement in his economy.

Pierre, after talking with Bolkonsky, will begin to doubt and will gradually move away from Freemasonry. Over time, he will again experience desperate melancholy, and again he will be tormented by the question: "How to live?"

But in his impracticality and eternal search for the meaning of life, Pierre turns out to be kinder and wiser than Prince Andrew.

Seeing how Natasha suffers and suffers, having made a terrible mistake by contacting Anatol Kuragin, Pierre tries to convey to Bolkonsky her love, her repentance. But Prince Andrew is adamant: “I said that a fallen woman should be forgiven, but I did not say that I could forgive. I can't ... If you want to be my friend, don't ever talk to me about this ... about all this. " He does not want to understand an important truth: if you love, you cannot think only of yourself. Love sometimes manifests itself in the fact that you need to understand and forgive a loved one.

Having met Platon Karataev in captivity, Pierre learns from him naturalness, truthfulness, and the ability to easily relate to life's troubles. And this is another stage in the spiritual development of Pierre Bezukhov. Thanks to the simple truths about which Karataev reasoned, Pierre realized that it is important to value the life of every person and respect his inner world as well as his own.

Conclusion

The novel "War and Peace" is a description of almost a decade in the lives of many people. During this time, it happened great amount different events in the history of Russia, and in the fates of the characters in the novel. But, despite this, the main characters of the novel are left with the basic truths that are spoken of in the work: love, honor, dignity, friendship.

I want to finish my essay on the topic “Search for the meaning of life by Pierre Bezukhov” with the words he said to Natasha: “They say: misery, suffering ... Yes, if now, this very minute they told me: do you want to remain what you were before captivity, or first survive everything this is? For God's sake, once again captivity and horse meat. We think how we will be thrown out of our usual path, that everything is lost; and here is just the beginning of a new, good. As long as there is life, there is happiness. "

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Introduction

The study human consciousness, prepared by self-observation, allowed Tolstoy to become a profound psychologist. In the images he created, especially in the images of the main characters of the novel, the inner life of a person is exposed - a complex, contradictory process usually hidden from prying eyes. Tolstoy, according to N.G. Chernyshevsky, reveals the "dialectic human soul", that is," subtle phenomena ... of inner life, replacing one another with extreme rapidity. "The spiritual beauty of Tolstoy's favorite heroes - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov for the whole people, their way of life is the way of searching for the meaning of life and death.

I decided to take the research topic of this search, because I think it is the closest and most interesting for myself.

Every thinking person sooner or later asks himself the question: “What is life? What is death? What am I in their endless cycle? ”. I wonder how the smartest people of their time - Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - are looking for answers to these eternal questions.

The search for the meaning of life by Pierre Bezukhov

human consciousness fat war

At the beginning of the novel, Pierre Bezukhov is shown as young, energetic, completely unlike all those around him. Having just arrived from abroad, he still does not know how to behave in a secular environment, and therefore all his words and actions seem absurd and even indecent to the hypocritical aristocrats. Only one person understands Pierre and is always happy with his company - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. He gives Pierre instructions, advice - but he forgets about these advice and his promises already upon leaving Prince Andrew. Under the influence of his youth, Pierre leads a reckless life of a secular boozer and a bum, making many mistakes - in particular, together with the "golden youth" he participates in tying the quarterly to a bear with the further lowering of both into the water, he almost decides to sit on the cornice and risk falling down to drink a bottle of rum in one fell swoop. Having become the owner of a huge fortune, he marries the soulless beauty Helen. It is noteworthy that in one of the most lyrical and happy moments for most people - a declaration of love - Pierre forgot what to say. Here we are confronted with such concepts of Tolstoy as the present and the real. If the feeling is real, the words come from the very heart, from the depths of the soul. Bezukhov's unreal feeling was his big mistake.

Pierre was unhappy in his marriage. A crisis sets in in his life, he is painfully looking for a way out of the moral impasse. The situation is aggravated by his wife's betrayal and such a shock for even Pierre, who does not know how to hold a pistol, as a duel with Dolokhov, who insulted him. As a result, after the duel, the always calm, balanced Pierre, in response to his wife's insolence, breaks down and almost kills her. Shocked by his act, Pierre realizes that he can no longer remain in Moscow, next to his wife and with people who condemn him for the duel. He leaves for Petersburg, runs away from himself, from his former life, realizing the need for change.

Pierre is at a crossroads in life, he does not know what to do, what to do now, having freed himself from the shackles of secular society and having broken with his old life. On the way to Petersburg, Pierre thinks about the meaning of being, trying to find a place for himself in this world and understand his destiny. And then one of the key events in the life of Bezukhov takes place - he meets the freemason Bazdeev. Taking advantage of the fact that Pierre is at the crossroads of life, Bazdeev easily lures him into a Masonic society, supposedly preaching the ideals of good and religion and with the goal of eradicating evil and improving the human race.

In fact, the Masonic lodge is the same secular society, and many had the goal of only making a profitable acquaintance, joining its ranks, as Boris Drubetskoy did. But Pierre was seriously carried away by the ideas of Freemasonry, understanding it as a doctrine of brotherhood and love. He is open to goodness, he is impatient to do something good, and he directs his efforts to the improvement of serfs, the construction of schools, hospitals. But, as Tolstoy wrote, "Pierre did not have that practical tenacity," and therefore he really did not succeed - the elders lied and robbed him, although he himself was sure that all things were going well.

The Freemason brothers did not share Pierre's enthusiasm. They took advantage of his generosity and naivety, grabbing the money allocated to him for charity. Pierre makes a speech in the box, urging his "like-minded people" to turn to the original ideals of Freemasonry and devote themselves to achieving the goals that Pierre set for himself and which, in his opinion, every Freemason should strive for. But he remained incomprehensible.

The outbreak of the war of 1812 forced Pierre to leave Masonic activity. Seized by patriotic feelings, he equips the regiment, wanting to do his bit in the fight against Napoleon. A keen desire to be involved in the holy cause of the liberation of the Fatherland leads Pierre to the Borodino field. Communicating with the soldiers - common people- he understood that the most powerful force in the world - the people - creates the true history.

Here are his reflections after the nightmare of the Borodino battle he experienced: “Thank God that this is no more. Oh, how terrible the fear and shameful I surrendered to it! And they ... they were all the time, to the end, were firm, calm ... ". In Pierre's understanding, they were just soldiers - those who were next to him on the battlefield and died for Russia. Pierre thought: “Be a soldier, just a soldier! To enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so. But how can one throw off all this superfluous, diabolical, all the burden of this external person? At one time I could be this. I could run from my father as I wanted. After my duel with Dolokhov, I could have been sent as a soldier. " In these thoughts - Pierre's desire to be closer to the people, to be imbued with their wisdom and simplicity.

As a result of these reflections and various cabalistic calculations, he decides to stay in Moscow, seeing his destiny in the assassination of Napoleon. But fate decrees otherwise - he is captured by the French.

For Pierre, the final stage of his search for the meaning of life begins. He meets Platon Karataev. In the minds of Bezukhov, he became the personification of the entire Russian people - infinitely wise, kind, meek. In communicating with Karataev, Pierre acquires all these qualities and "that calmness and self-satisfaction that he had vainly strived for before." But the main thing is that Pierre found God. “He could not have a goal, because he now had faith - not faith in any rules, or words, or thoughts, but faith in a living, always felt God ... In captivity he learned that God is greater in Karataev, is infinite and incomprehensible than in the Universe Architecton recognized by the Freemasons ... Before, destroying all his mental structures, a terrible question: why? did not exist for him now. Now the question is - why? a simple answer was always ready in his soul: then, that there is a god, that god, without whose will no hair will fall off a man's head. "

Pierre reached harmony with himself, found answers to the questions that tormented him all his life, he learned not to look at everything petty, everyday, everyday. He "joyfully contemplated around him the ever-changing, ever-great, incomprehensible and endless life."

Writings on literature: Search for the meaning of life by pir bezukhov

Creating the image of Pierre Bezukhov, L.N. Tolstoy started from specific life observations. People like Pierre often met in Russian life at that time. These are Alexander Muravyov, and Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, to whom Pierre is close to 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 portrayal of Pierre in the novel is its opposition to the surrounding noble environment. 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 worries her about the inconsistency of his manners with the etiquette of the drawing room. He is significantly different from all visitors to the salon and his smart, natural look. By contrast, the author presents Pierre's judgments and the vulgar chatter of Hippolytus. Opposing his hero to the environment, Tolstoy reveals his high spiritual qualities: sincerity, spontaneity, high conviction and noticeable gentleness. Anna Pavlovna's work ends with Pierre, to the discontent of the audience, defending the ideas of the French revolution, admiring Napoleon as the head of revolutionary France, defending the ideas of republic and freedom, showing the independence of his views.

Leo Tolstoy paints the appearance of his hero: this is "a massive, fat young man, with a cropped head, glasses, in light pantaloons, with a high frill and in a brown dress coat." The writer pays special attention to Pierre's smile, which makes his face childish, kind, stupid and seemingly asking for forgiveness. She seems to say: "Opinions are opinions, and you see what a kind and glorious 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 of the inheritance. Pierre is embarrassed and ashamed for 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 catered to, caressed and, as it seemed to him, loved. And he plunges into the stream of new life, obeying the atmosphere of the great light. So he finds himself in the company of "golden youth" - Anatoly Kuragin and Dolokhov. Under the influence of Anatole, he spends his days in revelry, unable to escape from this cycle. Pierre wastes his vitality, showing his characteristic lack of will. Prince Andrew is trying to convince him that this dissolute life does not suit him at all. But it is not so easy to pull him out of this "whirlpool". However, I will 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, sheer stupidity. "There is something disgusting in that feeling," he thought, "which she aroused in me, something forbidden." However, Pierre's feelings are influenced by her beauty and unconditional feminine charm, although real, deep love the hero of Tolstoy does not experience. Time will pass, and "circled" Pierre will hate Helene and with all his soul will feel her depravity.

In this plan important point began 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 in the power of the purity and nobility of his nature, but at the same time he believes the letter, for he knows Helene and her lover well. Dolokhov's insolent trick at the table throws Pierre off balance and leads to a duel. It is quite obvious to him that now he hates Helene and is ready to break with her forever, and at the same time break with the world in which she lived.

Dolokhov's and Pierre's attitude to the duel is different. The first is sent to a duel with a firm intention to kill, and the second suffers from the fact that he needs to shoot a man. In addition, Pierre never held a pistol in his hands and, in order to end this heinous deed as soon as possible, he somehow pulls the trigger, and when he wounds the enemy, barely holding back sobs, he 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 borderline for Pierre, opening before him a world of lies, in which he was destined to be for some time.

Begins new stage the spiritual quest of Pierre, when he, in a state of deep moral crisis, 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-philosophical society of the Freemasons. He seeks spiritual and moral renewal here, hopes for rebirth to a new life, longs for personal improvement. In addition, he wants to correct the imperfection of life, and this matter seems to him not at all difficult. "How easy, how little effort it takes to do so much good," thought Pierre, "and how little we care about it!"

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

Possessing childish purity and credulity, Pierre does not assume that he will have to face the meanness, deception and devilish resourcefulness of businessmen. He takes the construction of schools, hospitals, and 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 plight of the peasants, but also worsened their position, for the predation of the rich from the trading village and the robbery of the peasants, hidden from Pierre, joined here.

Neither the transformations in the countryside nor Freemasonry justified the hopes that Pierre had pinned on them. He is disenchanted with the goals of the Masonic organization, which now seems to him to be deceitful, vicious and hypocritical, where everyone is primarily concerned with a career. In addition, the ritual procedures characteristic of the Freemasons now seem to him an absurd and ridiculous performance. "Where am I?" He thinks, "what am I doing? Are they not laughing at me? Wouldn't I be ashamed to remember this?" Feeling the futility of Masonic ideas that did not change him at all own life Pierre "suddenly felt the impossibility of continuing his old 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 imperious; a special sensitivity arose, intense attention to everything that concerned Natasha. And he leaves for a while from public interests into the world of personal, intimate experiences that Natasha opened for him.

Pierre is convinced that Natasha loves Andrei Bolkonsky. She is perked up only by the fact that Prince Andrew enters, that he hears his voice. "Something very important is happening between them," Pierre thinks. Complicated feeling does not leave him. He loves Natasha carefully and dearly, but at the same time loyally and faithfully is friends with Andrey. Pierre wishes them happiness with all his heart, and at the same time Their love becomes a great grief for him.

The aggravation of mental loneliness chains Pierre to critical issues modernity. He sees before him the "tangled, terrible knot of life." On the one hand, he reflects, people have erected forty-forty churches in Moscow, professing the Christian law of love and forgiveness, and on the other hand -L yesterday they spotted a soldier with a whip and the priest let him kiss the cross before being executed. This is how the crisis grows in Pierre's soul.

Natasha, refusing to Prince Andrew, showed friendly spiritual sympathy for Pierre. And great, disinterested happiness overwhelmed him. Natasha, seized with grief and repentance, evokes such a flash of ardent love in Pierre's soul that, unexpectedly for himself, he makes a kind of confession to her: best person in the world ... I would be on my knees this minute for your hand and your love. "In this new enthusiastic state, Pierre forgets about social and other issues that worried him so much. incompleteness of life, deeply and widely understood by him.

The events of the war of 1812 produced a sharp change in Pierre's outlook. They made it possible for him to get out of the state of selfish isolation. He begins to take possession of an incomprehensible anxiety for him, and, although he does not know how to understand the events that are taking place, he inevitably joins in the stream of reality and thinks about his participation in the fate of the Fatherland. And this is not just speculation. He prepares the militia, and then goes to Mozhaisk, to the field of the Borodino battle, where a new world of ordinary people unfamiliar to him opens up in front of him.

In the epic novel JI. N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" Pierre Bezukhov is one of the main and favorite heroes of the author. Pierre is a seeker, unable to stop, calm down, forget about the need for a moral "core" of being. His soul is open to the whole world, responsive to all the impressions of the surrounding life. He cannot live without solving for himself the main questions about the meaning of life, about the purpose of human existence. And he is characterized by dramatic delusions, contradictory character. The image of Pierre Bezukhov is especially close to Tolstoy: the inner motives of the hero's behavior, the originality of his personality are largely autobiographical.

When we first met Pierre, we see that he is very pliable, gentle, prone to doubts, and shy. Tolstoy repeatedly emphasizes, "Pierre was somewhat larger than other men," "big legs," "clumsy," "thick, taller than normal, wide, with huge red hands." But at the same time, his soul is thin, delicate, like a child's.

Before us is a man of his era, living by its spiritual mood, by its interests, looking for an answer to specific questions of Russian life at the beginning of the century. Bezukhov is looking for something to which he could devote his life, does not want and cannot be satisfied with secular values ​​or become a "better man."

Opiera is told that with a smile, "a serious and even somewhat sullen face disappeared and another - childish, kind ..." About him Bolkonsky says that Pierre is the only "living person among all our world."

The bastard son of a great nobleman, who inherited the title of count and a huge fortune, Pierre nevertheless finds himself in the world as a stranger in a special way. On the one hand, he is certainly accepted in the world, and on the other, respect for Bezukhov is not based on the adherence of the count. " common to all "values, but on the" properties "of his property status. Sincerity, openness of the soul distinguish Pierre in a secular society, opposing the world to ritual, hypocrisy, duality. Openness of behavior and independence of thought distinguish him among the visitors of the Scherer salon. In the living room, Pierre is always waiting for an opportunity to break into the conversation. Anna Pavlovna, who was "watching" him, managed to stop him several times.

The first stage of Bezukhov's internal development, depicted in the novel, covers Pierre's life before his marriage to Kuragina. Not seeing his place in life, not knowing what to do with enormous forces, Pierre leads a riotous life in the company of Dolokhov and Kuragin. Open good person, Bezukhov often turns out to be defenseless in front of the skillful play of those around him. He cannot correctly assess people and therefore often makes mistakes in them. Revelry and reading of spiritual books, kindness and involuntary cruelty characterize the life of the count at this time. He understands that such a life is not for him, but he does not have enough strength to break out of the usual cycle. Like Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre his moral development begins with delusion - the deification of Napoleon. Bezukhov justifies the actions of the emperor by state necessity. But at the same time, the hero of the novel does not strive for practical activity, denies the war.

Marrying Helene calmed Pierre. For a long time Bezukhov does not understand that he has become a toy in the hands of the Kuragin. The stronger becomes his sense of bitterness, of offended dignity, when fate reveals deception to Pierre. Time spent in a calm consciousness of your happiness turns out to be an illusion. But Pierre is one of those rare people for whom moral purity and understanding of the meaning of their existence are vital.

The second stage of Pierre's internal development is the events after the break with his wife and the duel with Dolokhov. Realizing with horror that he was able to "encroach" on the life of another person, he is trying to find the source of his fall, the moral support that will give him the opportunity to "return" humanity.

The search for truth and the meaning of life leads Bezukhov to the Masonic lodge. The principles of the Masons seem to Bezukhov to be a "system of rules) for another life." It seems to Pierre that in Freemasonry he sought the embodiment of his ideals. He is imbued with a passionate desire "to regenerate the vicious human race and to bring himself to the highest degree of perfection." But here, too, he will be disappointed. Pierre is trying to free his peasants, to establish hospitals, orphanages, schools, but all this does not bring him closer to the atmosphere of brotherly love preached by the Masons, but only creates the illusion of his own moral growth.

The invasion of Napoleon sharpened the national consciousness of the count to the highest degree. He felt like a part of a single whole - the people. “To be a soldier, just a soldier,” Pierre thinks with delight. But the hero of the novel nevertheless does not want to become “just a soldier”. Having decided to "execute" the French emperor, Bezukhov, according to Tolstoy, becomes the same "madman" as Prince Andrew was at Austerlitz, intending to single-handedly save the army. Borodin's field opened up to Pierre a new, unfamiliar world of simple, natural people, but former illusions prevent the count from accepting this world as the ultimate truth. He did not understand that history is made not by loners, but by the people.

Captivity, the scene of the execution changed Pierre's consciousness. He, who had been looking for kindness in people all his life, saw indifference to human life, the “mechanical” destruction of the “guilty”. The world turned into a meaningless heap of fragments for him. The meeting with Karataev opened to Pierre that side of the national consciousness that requires humility before the will of God. Pierre, who believed that the truth "is" in people, was shocked by the wisdom that testifies to the inaccessibility of truth without help from above. But something else won in Pierre - the striving for earthly happiness. And then it became possible new meeting with Natasha Rostova. Having married Natasha, Pierre for the first time feels himself a truly happy person.

The marriage to Natasha and the fascination with radical ideas are the main events of this period. Pierre believes that society can be changed through the efforts of several thousand honest people. But Decembrism becomes Bezukhov's new delusion, close in meaning to Bolkonsky's attempt to get involved in the change in Russian life "from above". Not a genius, not an "order" of the Decembrists, but the moral efforts of the entire nation - the path to a real change in Russian society. According to Tolstoy's plan, the hero of the novel was to be exiled to Siberia. And only after that, having survived the collapse of "false hopes", Bezukhov will come to a final understanding of the true laws of reality ...

Tolstoy shows the change in Pierre's character over time. We see twenty-year-old Pierre in the salon of Anna Scherer at the beginning of the epic and thirty-year-old Pierre in the epilogue of the novel. He shows how an inexperienced youth became a mature person with a huge future. Pierre was mistaken in people, submitted to his passions, did unreasonable deeds - and thought all the time. He was dissatisfied with himself all the time and reviewed himself.

People with a weak character often tend to explain all their actions by circumstances. But Pierre - in the most difficult, painful circumstances of captivity - had the strength to perform tremendous spiritual work, and it brought him that very feeling of inner freedom that he could not find when he was rich, owned houses and estates.