home Photo War and peace are the essence of the name. The meaning of the title of Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Noble society, its contrasts

War and peace are the essence of the name. The meaning of the title of Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Noble society, its contrasts

"War and Peace". This title of the great epic of Tolstoy seems to us, the readers, the only possible one. But the original title of the work was different: "All is well that ends well." And at first glance, such a title successfully underlines the course of the war of 1812 - the great victory of the Russian people in the struggle against the Napoleonic invasion.

Why was the writer not satisfied with this title? Probably because his idea was much broader and deeper than just a story about the Patriotic War of 1812. Tolstoy wanted to present in all its diversity, in contradictions and struggles, the life of an entire era and brilliantly fulfilled this task. The new title of the epic novel is as large-scale and ambiguous as this work itself, as all human life. Indeed, what is Tolstoy's great creation about? The simplest answer: about the life of Russia in the first quarter of the 19th century, about the wars of 1805-1807 and 1812, about the peaceful life of the country between these wars and about how people (both fictional and historical characters) lived after them.

But this generally correct answer does not reflect the depth of Tolstoy's thought. Indeed, what is war? In the usual sense, these are military actions with the aim of resolving some kind of interstate conflicts; according to Tolstoy, "an event contrary to human reason and all human nature." Peace is the absence of such actions.

But after all, "war" is also intrastate contradictions between the people and the authorities, between different classes, between different groups of people and individuals within one class, even in one family. Moreover, "war", that is, an internal struggle, is going on in each individual person. LN Tolstoy wrote about this as an indispensable condition for an honest life in his "Diary": lose. And calmness is spiritual meanness. " The concept of "peace" is even more ambiguous. This is not only the absence of war, but also harmony, harmony and unity of estates, harmony ("peace") of a person with himself and with other people. Mir is also a peasant community. The concept of "world" also includes "real life" as the great writer understood it: "Life, meanwhile, is the real life of people with their essential interests of health, illness, work, rest, with their interests in thought, science, poetry, music , love, friendship, hatred, passions went, as always, independently and outside of political closeness or enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte and outside all possible transformations. " So, "War and Peace" is a book about good and evil, about birth and death, about love and hate, about joy and sorrow, about happiness and suffering, about youth and old age, about honor, nobility and dishonor, about hopes and disappointments, losses and searches. This book covers everything that a person lives with, from the most insignificant personal events to the unprecedented unity of people in the hour of common trouble, the common struggle of the people.

The life that Tolstoy paints is very eventful. The episodes, whether they refer to "war" or "peace", are very different, but each one expresses the deep, inner meaning of life, the struggle of opposite principles in it. Internal contradictions are a prerequisite for the movement of the life of an individual and humanity as a whole. At the same time, "war" and "peace" do not exist separately, autonomously, independently of each other (Tolstoy himself refutes his definition of "real life", showing how war destroys familiar relationships, connections, interests and becomes the basis of being). One event is related to another: it follows from another and in turn entails the following.

Here's one example. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky goes to war, because life in high society is not according to him. The prince, a man of honor, behaves with dignity in battle, does not look for a warm place. Dreaming of glory, "human love", he accomplishes a feat, but realizes that glory cannot, should not be the meaning of a real person's life. Internal conflict leads to the deepest spiritual crisis. The war of 1805-1807 ended, but there is no peace in his soul. It's amazing how the title of the entire epic corresponds to one storyline, to the “search for thought” of one hero. And what efforts did it take to find "peace" from Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova - Tolstoy's favorite heroes, whom he leads through the cleansing crucible of the 1812 war.

With striking power, the depth of the title of the novel "War and Peace" is revealed in Volume III, dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812, when the whole "world" (people) realized the impossibility of surrendering to the mercy of the invaders. Defenders of Moscow "want to pile on all the people, they want to make one end." The like-mindedness of Kutuzov, Prince Andrei, Pierre, Timokhin and the entire Russian army, the whole ... "world" determined the outcome of the war, because national unity was created, the world of the twelfth year ...

The title "War and Peace" is also genius because it contains a contrast that became the main principle of the construction of the epic: Kutuzov - Napoleon; Rostov, Bolkonsky - Kuragin and at the same time Rostov - Bolkonsky; N. Rostova - Princess Marya, Borodin's field before and after the battle, Pierre before and after the events of 1812 ... In the epilogue of the novel, the principle of contrast as the main compositional device of War and Peace is emphasized by an episode of the dispute between Pierre Bezukhov, the future Decembrist, and , "Law-abiding" N. Rostov. In this most important episode, "vicious people" are directly opposed to "honest people."

War and peace are eternal concepts, even if there is no military action. That is why Tolstoy's novel "rises to the highest peaks of human thoughts and feelings, to peaks that are usually inaccessible to people" (N. N. Strakhov). There are no such books anymore and such brilliant titles - too.

LN Tolstoy once said that he would be happy to write a novel that would be read by "today's children in twenty years and will cry and laugh at it, and love life." Many years have passed since then, much more than twenty, and more than one generation has discovered and is discovering the immortal creation of human genius - the epic novel War and Peace. It is impossible to fully and meaningfully answer the question: what is this book about? Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is a book about battles and battles, about families and the spiritual search of people, about love and hatred, about honor and dishonor, about aristocracy and peasants ... This is a book about life in to all its diversity and unpredictability.

During the creation of the novel by the author, Russia was on the rise, and many people tried to solve eternal questions for themselves: what is a person and what is a people? What role do they play in history? What determines their fate, ba, happiness? LN Tolstoy was also worried about these questions, and for a long time he was looking for those obvious and significant events in the fate of the people, which would be commensurate with the depth of the questions asked. Having stopped his choice on the Patriotic War of 1812, the writer conceived a novel that was to become much wider and deeper than a simple description of military actions, since his task was to reflect the life of an entire era in all its contradictions, problems, discoveries, to show the versatility and a variety of life phenomena, the complexity of human destinies.

The title of the book, War and Peace, is as comprehensive as its content. It has a huge variety of meanings, and this fully contributes to the disclosure of the author's intention.

What is "war"? After all, these are not only military actions between states, but also contradictions between classes and estates, between state power and the people, between groups of people and within one person.

The concept of “peace” is also infinitely broad, since it means not only the opposite of war, the peaceful life of the people, but also the people themselves (“the whole world pile on”), and the inner world of each individual person, hero.

"War" and "peace" in the novel are extremely closely intertwined, they are interpenetrating, since misunderstanding and enmity between people ("war") are possible in peacetime, and the unification of the entire Russian people ("world") against the French Tsuz invaders, in order to defend their homeland, forces them to retreat to the "war" - an army that was previously unconquerable. And internal searches and contradictions in a person, dissatisfaction with oneself or others ("war") are possible and natural both in peacetime and in wartime. Material from the site

Therefore, we see that the title of the novel, on which L.N. Tolstoy stopped, is as large-scale and multifaceted as the work itself, as the whole life, looking at us from the pages of a novel, in which more than five hundred heroes are closely intertwined. Despite such a huge number of characters, the subject of research in the novel was not the private fates of certain heroes, but their interconnections, on which the course of historical events ultimately depended. It is remarkable that Tolstoy's heroes achieve the highest happiness, find answers to their questions precisely in unity with their family, people, and the universe-world.

I am sure that more than one generation will “cry and laugh” at this great work, reflecting on a vivid, complex, all-encompassing epic novel, a book about life.

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At first glance, the title of the great epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy seems to be the only possible one. But the original title of the work was different: "All is well that ends well." And, it would seem, such a title successfully underlines the course of the war of 1812 - the great victory of the Russian people.

Why was the writer not satisfied with this title? Probably because his idea was much broader and deeper than just a story about the Patriotic War of 1812. Tolstoy wanted to represent the life of an entire era in all its diversity, in contradictions and struggles.

The theme of the work is formed by three circles of issues: the problems of the people, the noble community and the personal life of a person, determined by ethical standards. The main artistic device used by the writer is the antithesis. This technique is the core of the entire novel: in the novel, two wars (1805-1807 and 1812) are opposed, and two battles (Austerlitz and Borodino), and military leaders (Kutuzov and Napoleon), and cities (Petersburg and Moscow), and active faces. But in fact, this opposition is laid down in the very title of the novel: "War and Peace."

This name reflects a deep philosophical meaning. The fact is that the word "peace" before the revolution had a different letter designation for the sound [and] - i is decimal, and the word was written "peace". Such a spelling of the word indicated that it had many meanings. Indeed, the word "peace" in the title is not a simple designation of the concept of peace, a state opposite to war. In the novel, this word carries many meanings, illuminates important aspects of people's life, views, ideals, life and customs of various strata of society.

The epic beginning in the novel "War and Peace" connects the pictures of war and peace into a single whole with invisible threads. Likewise, the word "war" means not only military actions of warring armies, but also the militant hostility of people in a peaceful life, divided by social and moral barriers. The concept of "world" appears and is revealed in the epic in its various meanings. Peace is the life of a people who are not at war. The world is a peasant gathering that started a riot in Bogucharov. The world is everyday interests, which, unlike the abusive life, so prevent Nikolai Rostov from being a "wonderful person" and so annoy him when he comes on vacation and does not understand anything about this "stupid world." The world is the closest environment of a person, which is always with him, wherever he is: in war or in a peaceful life.

And, finally, behind all these meanings lies Tolstoy's philosophical concept of the world as the Universe, the universe in its main opposing states, which act as internal forces of the development and life of peoples, history, and the fate of individuals.Pierre speaks about him, proving to Prince Andrey the existence of a "kingdom of truth." The world is a brotherhood of people regardless of national and class differences, to which Nikolai Rostov proclaims toast when meeting with the Austrians.

In my opinion, Tolstoy uses another means of artistic expression to reveal the meaning of the title of the novel. itoxymoron . The military events included in the plot of the novel create peace and harmony in the inner and outer life of the heroes, and peaceful events, on the contrary, sow discord, misunderstanding, and fragmentation of the heroes' destinies. ... If you look at how the heroes behave when the war reached Moscow, it becomes obvious that these military difficulties rallied the heroes, awakened in them feelings of compassion and sympathy for their neighbors. An example of this is the Rostov family, which accepts the sick and wounded in their home, helps them with food and medicine, Natasha herself acts as a nurse and nurse. In this difficult time, the city seemed to have erased the boundaries of social inequality, disappeared traces of everyday quarrels and scandals between the heroes, misunderstandings that reigned in peacetime. That is, the war introduced into the lives of the heroes that unity, brotherhood, solidarity, mutual assistance, equality, which did not exist in peacetime. In addition, war also determines the spiritual order of the thoughts and feelings of the heroes. It is during the war that Andrei Bolkonsky's attitude to life changes: if before the first battle wound, Bolkonsky dreamed of glory, for which he was ready to put his life on the line: “Death, wounds, loss of a family, nothing is scary to me”, then after the battle of Austerlitz, the attitude towards life is changing. Having touched death, Bolkonsky begins to notice the beauty of life (blue sky), its uniqueness and insignificance of war (Napoleon already seems small, and everything that happens around him is meaningless). During the war, Pierre Bezukhov also settled down. That is, war not only creates the outer world of the heroes, but also the inner one. The world, on the other hand, introduces discord and disharmony into the lives of heroes. For example, everyday life brought confusion to the soul of Andrei Bolkonsky - disappointment with Natasha's refusal and the news of her romance with Anatol Kuragin. To find inner harmony, Bolkonsky goes to war. For him, war is a spiritual enlightenment and a spiritual hospital, and the world is a place of temptations and grief. Even the fact that Bolkonsky begins to look differently at his rival Anatol Kuragin when he meets him with an amputated leg in a hospital speaks of the beneficial effect of war on Bolkonsky's soul. In the world, he felt hatred and rivalry for Anatol Kuragin, even wanted to challenge him to a duel, and in the hospital - a feeling of compassion and sympathy, that is, the war reconciled enemies and rivals. Dolokhov also reconciles with Pierre during the war, when a prayer service was served on the Borodino field in front of the Smolensk miraculous icon. (in the world they quarreled over Helen Kuragina - Pierre's wife, who had an affair with Dolokhov). All these examples indicate that war contains both external and internal peace. And the pre-war time, the life of the heroes, on the contrary, is represented in the constant fragmentation of the heroes, misunderstandings, division: they divide the legacy of the old Count Bezukhov, gossip in the Scherer salon, burn their lives in ridiculous searches and actions, such as Pierre Bezukhov (then he will enter the Masonic lodge, sometimes he dances with a bear on a bet, sometimes he participates in city carousing, etc. ), betrayal (for example, Helen), rivalry (Dolokhov-Rostov because of Sonya; Anatol Kuragin-Bolkonsky because of Natasha; Dolokhov-Pierre because of Helen), etc. All these facets of rivalry and enmity are erased by war. Reconciles heroes, spiritually enriches and puts everything in its place. In addition, war awakens in heroes and strengthens their sense of patriotism. Conclusion: a life full of temptations and entertainment, the pleasures of life, takes the heroes away from spiritual wealth and worldly peace, and war and grief lead them.

That is why Tolstoy's novel "rises to the highest peaks of human thoughts and feelings, to peaks that are usually inaccessible to people" (N. N. Strakhov).

A title can tell a lot about a piece. As a rule, the title of a fictional text hints at the main problem, the character of the hero, a historical event, or some significant episode in the plot. The meaning of the title of the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace", at first glance, is transparent. In fact, it needs to be interpreted from different angles. After all, the author himself examines social events as such, then they affect the people as a whole and on individuals.

Tolstoy's work has gone through many edits by the author. At first it was conceived as the story of a Decembrist, but in the process of work, Lev Nikolaevich abandoned the original idea. The first name was also different from the one that the whole world knows today. The writer borrowed the English proverb: "All is well that ends well." In this version, by the way, Andrei Bolkonsky and Petya survived. After several revisions, when the war with Napoleon, and not the Decembrist movement, became the central event of the novel, the work received the name we know.

Indeed, the novel depicts hostilities and times of truce. Historical events affect the lives of the heroes of the work. Most of the characters after the hostilities return to peacetime completely different people. A striking example of transformation is. The injury helped the hero realize that his life priorities are false, guided by them, he will live his life in vain. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy shows that war poses problems for people that we do not even think about in the daily hustle and bustle of a peaceful life. These are questions about true values, exploits, heroism, true love and friendship.

Scenes of military and peaceful life are arranged in the novel so that the reader can easily trace how historical events affect society and individuals. We see how and thanks to what the desire of Russians for victory grows, how the attitude towards the state and language changes, patriotism is more clearly manifested.

The title of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy can also be viewed in the context of family dramas and internal struggles. For example, the early death of the old Count Bezukhov gives rise to a family war for a solid inheritance. At the same time, the illegitimate son Pierre does not even know how his fate is being decided, his thoughts are occupied with something completely different.

Heroes who know how to listen to their feelings sometimes go to war with themselves. For example, Andrei Bolkonsky feels that he cannot live fully among aristocrats, constant lies and intrigues. However, for a while, he has to muffle his desire for freedom. contradict herself when she strikes up a relationship with Anatole. Indeed, in fact, the girl's heart belongs to Andrei Bolkonsky. Peace in the souls of heroes comes only when they find happiness and find the meaning of life.

Thus, the title of the novel "War and Peace" should be viewed in broad and narrow meanings.

This is an epic novel in the truest sense of the word. Stretching over several decades, it masterfully describes the history of Russia from the late 18th century to the first third of the 1800s. At over 1,600 pages, this is by far one of the longest novels, but unlike many much shorter books, the length is well worth it. Although Tolstoy is very scrupulous, his letter is easy to read, and the pages just fly from flipping.

It is known that at first the author wanted to title the work with a phraseological unit: "All is well that ends well." I meant the positive outcome of the war, as well as the lives of the heroes after all the events, difficulties, twists and turns. But later to the writer, this title seemed too superficial, not reflecting the full depth of the novel. In addition, it limited the author in the development of the plot. The phrase suggests a perfectly good ending for everyone, but this could not have happened in principle.

There were also other options: "1805" and "The Decembrist", but they turned out to be too narrow to reflect all the facets of a novel of this magnitude.

What is the meaning of the name?

LN Tolstoy gives his most fundamental work a dual name that creates a contrast. The name of the novel is deep and multifaceted. The war here not only reminds of the hostilities that took place in the described historical period. This is a split in 19th century society. This is the spiritual path of heroes, the search for harmony, internal confrontations, experiences, throwing. These are difficulties in human relationships, intra-family, love conflicts. This is the ambiguity, the inconsistency of the images themselves. And also clashes of views, opinions on important social issues, the correct answer, to which even the author did not know.

Society at war

In turn, peace, as an opposite concept, is harmony, the acquisition of personal happiness, acceptance, understanding of oneself and others. And not just the absence of enmity. On the other hand, the events of 1805-1807 and 1812 changed the heroes, turned their worldview upside down, brought up new personal qualities, helped to know oneself, comrades, and realize the truths of life. In the novel, the words "peace" and "society" are synonymous. The work could be renamed Society and War. Much attention is paid to the person, the personality during the hostilities. Andrei Bolkonsky was greatly changed by the Battle of Austerlitz. The author puts his hero on a fine line between life and death. Strong emotions, stress, existential experiences, severe injury become a test of the truth of his beliefs, morality of ideals, strength of moral principles, but Andrey breaks this ordeal, deprives him of inner harmony. And Pierre compares his experience in society with the events experienced in the war, in order to form philosophical views, his new worldview, and cultivate an inner core.

The world is life, therefore the word in the name also carries a vital meaning.

Themes of the epic novel

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The books are devoted to two main topics. One of them is the Russian-French wars of 1805 and 1812. Tolstoy describes the wars, in particular the battles of Austerlitz (1805) and Borodino (1812), in vivid detail, apparently very accurately from a historical point of view. The characters of Napoleon and Kutuzov (the leader of the Russian army) take an active part in the narrative, with the lesser leaders (Bagration, de Tolly, Davout) also receiving enough attention to build a complete, interesting story. Specific events of the war are covered with the participation of the main characters of the book, such as Andrei Bolkonsky, Nikolai Rostov, Pierre Bezukhov.

The other was the highest Russian society of that time. The book gives a very interesting, deep look at this unusual society, by today's standards, somewhat modeled, thus, similar to other European societies (French, British, etc.). Tolstoy also has a little idea of life in rural Russia, the relationship between nobles and serfs, although he does not spend as much effort on this topic as in Anna Karenina.

The heroes of the book are varied and represent different ideas that Lev Nikolaevich is trying to infuse into his story. All of them, without exception, are extremely believable, well-developed, alive. I cannot remember other authors who know how to present, develop their characters, like Tolstoy.

Contrast

The novel is built on an antithesis, which here becomes the main method of artistic expressiveness of the text. The dialogue of contrasts continues throughout the entire plot. The name has a deep philosophical meaning. Much broader than it might seem to the person who first opened this book. Peace is not just peace, the antipode of battles, battles. This is life, people, society, views, ideals. And also the inner harmony, to which the heroes strive throughout the entire plot, and get through the inner struggle, suffering. And war is these confrontations. The name invisible threads connects all events, individuals, entire families, creating a single canvas for the story.

In Russian folklore, the truth sounds: "There is a silver lining." And L.N. Tolstoy: "There is no peace without war."