At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it; the other even more reasonable says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger, since it is not a man's power to provide for everything and escape from the general march of events; and that it is therefore better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second. - Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace)
Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.
According to E.M Forster, Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” (Voyna I Mir) is
the greatest novel ever written. The French novelist Romain Rolland called it
the most fascinating novel of all time. William James stated “War and Peace is
a perfection in the representation of human life” In 1910 Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin wrote: ‘succeeded in raising so many great
problems and succeeded in rising to such heights of artistic power that his
works rank among the greatest in world literature. For over a century, Leo
Tolstoy has been one of the most famous and most widely read authors in the
whole world (Yegorov, 1994). As indicated by Harding (2010) Leo
Tolstoy is widely considered in the West to be the greatest writer of all time (Harding, 2010).
War and Peace is a
philosophical, historical and an epic novel that runs through time and space. In this novel Tolstoy narrates his
social, political, philosophical, historical, aesthetic, ethical, religious and
moral views. He analyzed the complex processes of historical reality, social
dynamics and human behaviour. The ideals and meaning of human existence had
been his central theme. Over four
hundred fictional and historical characters are illustrated in this unique
novel and art of storytelling and meticulous realism are impressive in this masterpiece.
War and Peace is the personification of pre revolutionary Imperial
Russia that never experienced an inborn Renaissance
.War and Peace narrates Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the post war period
that created weighty changes. Tolstoy shows the depth, ambiguity, and majesty
of the human character in times of war and in times of peace.
Tolstoy remains an exceptional writer
of genius who profoundly analyzed a variety of characters. His psychological
insights, like his style, create in the reader a sense of intimacy with the
characters (Simmons, 1968).
In War and Peace Tolstoy argued his own idiosyncratic theory of life. His
Philosophy was complex. He found numerous conflictive struggles in his own
life. He was struggling between with his
Christian ideals and his conflicts with lust and the hypocrisies. He was
tormented between ideals. His struggles with his passions and his spiritual
conflicts made him to write the greatest book in the history of literature. War
and Peace is a question paper submitted to the reader. In War and Peace and in
his other novels Tolstoy posed a question: how to lead a perfect life in an
imperfect world? In a way “War and
Peace” represents Tolstoy’s conscious and unconscious mental conflicts.
Leo Tolstoy
believed that the man has the ability to change positively and man is capable
of search for meaning fulfilling his spiritual quest. He revealed the
dialectics of the human soul. Tolstoy opens up psychologically credible
-multi-faceted human character in times of war and peace.
He was deeply influenced by the French
Philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau. He strongly grasped Rousseau‘s expression: Man is born
free and everywhere he is in chains. Tolstoy believed that man is born pure but
society corrupts him. He emphasized that civilization corrupts the natural man.
He was against the organized religions. He saw corruption, deception and
spiritual degradation in the religious institutions. He exceedingly criticized
the Russian Orthodox Church. He was a spiritual
anarchist as well
as a spiritual revolutionary. The Church was offended by
Leo Tolstoy’s critical writing, speeches and views and later he was condemned
and excommunicated by the Church. However Tolstoy became the moral
and spiritual exemplar of the Nation. Admiring
Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi wrote: Tolstoy is one of the clearest thinkers in the
western world.
Tolstoy debated about good and evil. He saw
malevolence in war. Tolstoy identified that wars were one of the central
problems in the history of mankind. According to Tolstoy peace is not only the
absence of war but also the absence of hostility between people, communities
and nations. In this novel Tolstoy highlights war between nations, war between
institutions, war between classes, war between families, war between
individuals and internal war within
one’s self. According Tolstoy Peace ought to be achieved by harmonizing
external as well as internal factors. It is an individual as well as a
collective effort.
Tolstoy discussed
“Free Will” in his great novel. Arguing
about free will Tolstoy writes: “You say-I am not free. But I have raised and
lowered my arm. Everyone understands that this illogical answer is an
irrefutable proof of freedom”. Tolstoy believed that our unconscious dependence
on hidden forces. He wrote: If we concede that human life can be governed by
reason, the possibility of life is destroyed. Tolstoy's predispositions form
metaphysical bedrock that constrains the philosophical approaches available for
addressing the problem of freewill. His views of reason, laws, and reality spur
each other on in such a way that one supposition necessitates the others
(Thugushev, 2006).
Tolstoy may have
influenced by David Hume’s approach: free will via the notion of causality. But
Tolstoy’s explanation of free will is unique and comprehensive.
Man's free will differs from every other force in
that man is directly conscious of it, but in the eyes of reason it in no way
differs from any other force. The forces of gravitation, electricity, or
chemical affinity are only distinguished from one another in that they are
differently defined by reason. Just so the force of man's free will is
distinguished by reason from the other forces of nature only by the definition
reason gives it. Freedom, apart from necessity, that is, apart from the laws of
reason that define it, differs in no way from gravitation or heat, or the force
that makes things grow; for reason, it is only a momentary undefinable
sensation of life. (War and Peace by Leo
Tolstoy)
Tolstoy considered
social evolution as a part of human existence. He was well aware of the socio
economic conditions of his own society and realized that radical social changes
would occur in Russia. Tolstoy expressed his sympathetic views and sentiments
for the peasantry in the Pre Revolutionary Russia. He realized the magnitude of mass exploitations and
inequalities that prevailed in the society. Although Lenin portrayed Leo Tolstoy as a mirror of
the Russian revolution, Tolstoy was against any kind of terror against classes.
He was against the violence imposed by society, social institutions as well as
by individuals.
Tolstoy was a
great reformer and an educator. He believed in the education of the masses. He
had vast ideals of humanistic education.
He thought that via education social injustices and social ignorance
could be eliminated. According to Yegorov (1994) Leo Tolstoy strove from an
early age to play a practical part in the education of the people. The idea
behind his first book “The four periods of development” is deeply symbolic. His
intention was to describe in it the process by which the human character is
formed, from very earliest childhood, when the life of the spirit first begins
to stir, to youth, when it has adopted its final shape.
He encouraged
Gnoseology - the philosophic theory of knowledge: inquiry into the basis, nature, validity, and
limits of knowledge. In Tolstoy’s view, freedom in education was a
gnoseological and moral principle that had to be put into practice; it was the
antithesis of authoritarian teaching, and essential for a humane attitude to
the pupil and respect for his or her dignity as a human being (Yegorov, 1994).
Tolstoy ridiculed the insensitive and harsh educational methods that were used
by the teachers of his day. In his novel he shows the unsuccessful educational
methods adopted by the eccentric Prince Nicholas Bolkonski.
In War and Peace Leo Tolstoy did depth
analysis of human soul. He frequently used internal monologues to psychologically analyze his main
characters. Tolstoy elegantly
writes about the Emperors, Kings, Queens, and Aristocrats describing their
lavish flamboyant life styles. He narrates their inner thoughts and
interactions with each other. Also he writes about the downtrodden subjects of
the Russian Imperial Society. He describes their non sophisticated but
miserable lives. He reflects their thoughts and feelings.
The character analysis is exceptional in this great novel. There are
several central characters that keep the narrative live and distinctive. Pierre
Bezukhov and Prince
Andrey Bolkonski. two fictional
characters appear throughout the novel are remarkable for their static nature.
They often regarded as being reflections of Tolstoy himself.
In addition there are a number of minor
characters described in this great novel. They too influence the story line
stylishly. Like the Emperors and Kings they too are heroes of special kind who
demonstrated bravery and courage during the Napoleonic invasion.
In War and Peace Leo Tolstoy illustrates a
peasant soldier named Tikhon who is known for his courage and bravery. Another
character is Lavrushka who is a cunning servant of the Captain Denisov.
Lavrushka is famous for trickery and he operates behind the enemy lines. The
reader meets another character called Alpatych who is a loyal servant of the Prince Nicholas
Bolkonski. Although Alpatych
is humble and extremely respectful in front of the old Prince Bolkonski he behaves like a pretentious master in front
of the other servants. Pelageyushka is another insignificant character
described in the novel. She is a pious old poor woman who travels across
Russia. Pelageyushka frequently visits
the Princess Maria Bolkonskaya who gives her money and food. In addition
Tolstoy splendidly writes about the inner thoughts of a small child - little
Malasha who is peasant girl. She suddenly becomes acquainted with the General Mikhail
Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov- the Commanding Officer of the Russian
Imperial Army and two of them become curious friends in the middle
of the War. Little Malasha calls the Great Russian General Kutuzov –
Dedushka (Grandpa). She curiously observes the challenging attitudes and
arguments between the General Kutuzov and the General Bennigsen.
Malasha
looked down from the oven with shy delight at the faces, uniforms, and
decorations of the generals, who one after another came into the room and sat
down on the broad benches in the corner under the icons. "Granddad"
himself, as Malasha in her own mind called Kutuzov, sat apart in a dark corner
behind the oven. He sat, sunk deep in a folding armchair, and continually
cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his coat which, though it was
unbuttoned, still seemed to pinch his neck. Those who entered went up one by
one to the field marshal; he pressed the hands of some and nodded to others.
His adjutant Kaysarov was about to draw back the curtain of the window facing
Kutuzov, but the latter moved his hand angrily and Kaysarov understood that his
Serene Highness did not wish his face to be seen. (War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy)
The General Kutuzov
and General Bennigsen were debating about the
faith of the Moscow city. When the French forces are advancing General
Kaysarov decides to burn the city and retreat. He knows that going for a direct
military confrontation with Napoleon would be disastrous and it would perish
the Russian Army. He has a different tactic- Let them chase us until they
become exhausted. Give
enemy nothing but the ashes. Let them wonder in the scorched earth. When no food is
available the enemy would kill and eat their horses. When the enemy is
enfeeble it gives an opportunity to
attack them. General Kutuzov’s intention is to feed the French Army hoarse
meat. He did it to the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War in 1806. But the General Bennigsen
has a different plan. He wants to defend Moscow at all costs.
Bennigsen opened the council with the question: "Are we to abandon
Russia's ancient and sacred capital without a struggle, or are we to defend
it?"
A prolonged and general silence followed. There was a frown on every
face and only Kutuzov's angry grunts and occasional cough broke the silence.
All eyes were gazing at him. Malasha too looked at "Granddad." She
was nearest to him and saw how his face puckered; he seemed about to cry, but
this did not last long.
"Russia's
ancient and sacred capital!" he suddenly said, repeating Bennigsen's words
in an angry voice and thereby drawing attention to the false note in them.
"Allow me to tell you, your excellency, that that question has no meaning
for a Russian." (He lurched his heavy body forward.) "Such a question
cannot be put; it is senseless! The question I have asked these gentlemen to
meet to discuss is a military one. The question is that of saving Russia. Is it
better to give up Moscow without a battle, or by accepting battle to risk
losing the army as well as Moscow? That is the question on which I want your
opinion," and he sank back in his chair.
(War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy)
Tolstoy’s dynamic mind and duality of his personality were well
represented in this enormous novel. Although he had a compassionate mind to
understand the oppressions in his society once he stated : I sit on a man's back,
choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am
very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by
getting off his back. He was conscious about the exploitations existed in
his surrounding.
The Count Tolstoy renounced the luxury of his
aristocratic class and embraced the peasants’ life style. He saw peasant’s life
style as an ideal way of life. Also he admired the working class. He
writes: “the simple working people all around me were the Russian people, and I
turned to them and to the meaning they gave life”
Leo Tolstoy’s life was full of contradictions. He wanted to renounce
wealth but until his old age he could not make a precise decision. He preached
that the money was evil yet he enjoyed luxuries, he said people should detach
from their wealth and look after the poor. However in real life he had to
arrest three poor peasants who illegally cut timber in his state and later to
prosecute them. He was trapped in an unhappy marriage for a long time. At a
time he was an egoless humane husband and the next moment he was furious man
who was jealous and suspicious of his wife.
Leo Tolstoy’s shifting emotions were well documented in his novels and
many are reflected through major characters.
The Ideological crisis of the writer could be
seen in certain parts of this vast novel. Although Tolstoy was against
violence, in his novel he highlights justified cruelty which could have
resulted by his patriotic enthusiasm. According to the novel when the Muzhiks
(Russian peasants) see the retreating French soldiers who are now starving and
exhausted and also weakened by the winter they attack them dreadfully. The
Muzhiks massacre the Napoleon’s retreating remaining forces. Tolstoy glorifies
the actions of the Muzhiks who attack the half dead enemy soldiers who are now
in a vulnerable position in the steppes of Russia.
Family dynamics and parental influence were well described in this
novel. Tolstoy lost both of his parents at the small age. But their warmth and
spiritual touch lived with him. He immortalized their memory by creating two
fictional characters in War and Peace.
Nikolai Rostov (young brave Army officer who is a passionate lover fond of
gambling and leads a reckless life but
later turns in to a responsible man) and Maria Bolkonskaya (Prince Andrey Bolkonski ’s sister who is a loving and a religious woman) were based on Tolstoy's own
memories of his father and mother.
When Leo Tolstoy
was a little child his mother Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya died. He was
significantly impacted by the maternal deprivation syndrome following her
death. For a number of years Tolstoy erroneously
believed that his mother died as a result of childbirth. He portrays maternal
death and maternal deprivation in War and Peace describing the death of Liza
Meinen (Prince Andrey Bolkonski ’s wife) and further narrating the disheartening
situation of her baby son Nicolas who subsequently becomes an orphan.
In the novel Liza
dies while giving birth to her son. She was in pain and agony without her
husband. When she needed her husband Prince Andrei he went to the War leaving her with his nagging father and
helpless sister. Liza was seriously disappointed. Tolstoy vividly
describes Liza’s death in War and Peace.
Prince Andrew turned to him, but the
doctor gave him a bewildered look and passed by without a word. A woman rushed
out and seeing Prince Andrew stopped, hesitating on the threshold. He went into
his wife's room. She was lying dead, in the same position he had seen her in
five minutes before and, despite the fixed eyes and the pallor of the cheeks,
the same expression was on her charming childlike face with its upper lip
covered with tiny black hair.
Three days later the little princess was
buried, and Prince Andrew went up the steps to where the coffin stood, to give
her the farewell kiss. And there in the coffin was the same face, though with
closed eyes. “Ah, what have you done to me?” it still seemed to say, and Prince
Andrew felt that something gave way in his soul and that he was guilty of a sin
he could neither remedy nor forget. He could not weep. The old man too came up
and kissed the waxen little hands that lay quietly crossed one on the other on
her breast, and to him, too, her face seemed to say: “Ah, what have you done to
me, and why?” And at the sight the old man turned angrily away (War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy)
As indicated by
Rancourt-Laferer (1998) in his unfinished "Memoirs" (1903 - 1906
years), Tolstoy admitted that he could not remember his mother, but he kept her
memory intact as a spiritual image. In his perception, she was the embodiment
of the ideal of the sublime that lived inside his soul. In later years Tolstoy
converted his late mother as a goddesses like image and prayed. In old age
Tolstoy confessed that he still idolized and prayed for his mother. The
Psychoanalyst Nikolai Osipov wrote about Tolstoy’s fixation upon maternal
image. In a sense, Tolstoy did not quite come to terms with the fact that his
mother had died. This could have been a defense mechanism of the childhood
years and it had been preserved for long years.
During his
childhood Leo Tolstoy struggled with Oedipal confrontation with his father. One
noticing factor in War and Peace is
there are no ideal father figures. The three prominent fathers described in the
novel are Count Vasili Kuragin (Helen’s Father who is a cunning and egocentric
man) Count Kirill Bezukhov (Pierre Bezukhov ‘s father who is a well-known fornicator)
and Prince Nicholas
Bolkonski (Prince Andrey Bolkonski’s father who is an
irritable and nagging old man)
Maria Bolkonskaya becomes Tolstoy’s ideal and
fictional mother. He enriched her character with gentle and
humane maternal qualities. However his Oedipal confrontation is well pronounced
describing Maria Bolkonskaya.
Unmarried young Princess Mariya Bolkonskaya lives with her old wretched
father Prince Nicholas Bolkonski. Her
father often ill treats and ridicules her. He gives special attention to
Bourienne, – Princess’s chambermaid in
order to irritate Maria. Bourienne is a
French girl working in a Russian aristocratic family. However Maria tolerates all the negativity
that has been focused on her by the father and waits until her brother Prince
Andry Bolkonski returns from the War. When Andry Bolkonski becomes a POW and
family receives no information Maria relentlessly prays for his life. Tolstoy
portrays Mariya Bolkonskaya as a silent sufferer. She reminds us Freud’ s
famous case study Fräulein Anna O (Bertha Pappenheim) who repressed her
biological urges and cared for her aging irritable father.
Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrey Bolkonski look for father figures.
The absence of ideal father figures leads both men (Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrey Bolkonski) to seek substitute
fathers. Prince Andrey Bolkonski sees much of paternal qualities in the General Kutuzov and Pierre
Bezukhov finds his symbolic father in Osip Alexeevich Bazdeev- a noted
Freemason.
Pierre and Prince Andrei bear much resemblance to Tolstoy himself.
Tolstoy was struggling with his passions and his spiritual conflicts. These
unresolved mental conflicts were expressed via Pierre Bezukhov’s
character. According to the novel Pierre
Bezukhov is an illegitimate son of the Count Kirill Bezukhov. Pierre is
described as an ill-mannered non attractive socially awkward man who is fond of
women, wine and gambling. This portrait
is much similar to young Tolstoy.
Young Tolstoy had a passion for gambling and
had exhausted the family wealth. Like Pierre Bezukhov he found it difficult to
integrate into the Petersburg high society.
Tolstoy admitted himself as a non attractive ugly man. Likewise Pierre
Bezukhov is narrated as a huge bear like person. Pierre was ignored and
rejected by the high society until he inherits his father’s fortune. Once he
becomes rich and famous Pierre was forced to get married to Helen Kuragina (Count Vasili
Kuragin’s daughter). Consequently he was trapped in
an unhappy marriage and searching for meaning in his life. One time debauched and profligate man now
becomes a philosopher who is searching for meaning in life. Pierre Bezukhov represents much of Tolstoy’s life philosophy.
Pierre Bezukhov was unhappy with his married life.
He was troubled by his wife - Helen’s promiscuous behaviour. He suspects Helen
is in love with his former friend Dolokhov. Dolokhov is a young reckless
officer who was demoted for his disorderliness. However Dolokhov earns his rank
fighting bravely in the first battle against Napoleon. Hence he was able to
return to the St Petersburg high society. Aristocratic women adore Dolokhov’s bravery
and his ability to gratify women.
The unsolved problem that tormented
him was caused by hints given by the
princess, his cousin, at Moscow, concerning Dolokhov's intimacy with his wife,
and by an anonymous letter he had received that morning, which in the mean
jocular way common to anonymous letters said that he saw badly through his
spectacles, but that his wife's connection with Dolokhov was a secret to no one
but himself. Pierre absolutely disbelieved both the princess' hints and the
letter, but he feared now to look at Dolokhov, who was sitting opposite him.
Every time he chanced to meet Dolokhov's handsome insolent eyes, Pierre felt
something terrible and monstrous rising in his soul and turned quickly away.
Involuntarily recalling his wife's past and her relations with Dolokhov, Pierre
saw clearly that what was said in the letter might be true, or might at least
seem to be true had it not referred to his wife (War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy)
One time Leo Tolstoy was
troubled by sexual jealousy. His famous work The Kreutzer Sonata"
(1889) became a part of his biography. The protagonist Pozdnyshev suspects that his wife has a secret
affair with the violinist Troukhatchevsky. His sexual ordeal leads to a sexual
obsessions, sexual guilt and sexual jealousy. At the end Pozdnyshev kills his
wife.
Tolstoy believed that if two married people stay together and
their initial love is mostly filled with sensual pleasure and carnal love it
can quickly turn into hatred. According to Tolstoy carnal love degrades the
human spirit. In Kreutzer Sonata Tolstoy argued carnal love vs chastity.
In War and Peace Pierre makes an attempt to attack his
wife with a heavy marble bench. It
would have been a fatal blow if he had attacked her. Pierre’s initial thoughts
were to kill his wife. He had adequate evidence to believe that his wife had a
sexual relationship with the Officer Dolokhov. Pierre is intensely affected by
sexual jealousy. His rage brings extreme fear to Helen. After this
confrontation both are parted. Instead of killing his wife Pierre goes in to
seclusion and search of meaning. Pierre
redirects himself towards spiritual pursuits
According to Melanie Klein-Austrian-born British psychoanalyst at an
early stage of development the male child perceives his penis as a weapon of
his sadism. In normal
development man overcomes the idea of destructiveness of the penis. Happy and
satisfying sexual relationship with a woman convinces a man that his penis has
valuable properties and cause a man unconscious belief that the desire to
compensate the woman caused the damage before a success. This not only
increases the sexual pleasure of his love and affection for the woman, but also
causes a sense of gratitude and peace.
In his young days Tolstoy was a compulsive gambler and a noted adulterer. Sometimes he tried to
seduce the wives of his military colleagues. However in his old age he
renounced sex and preached abstinence. Many youth during his era became
followers of Tolstoyanism. His young private secretary Valentin Bulgakov
embraced Tolstoyanism that had life principles such as pacifism, vegetarianism,
non-participation in political activities and a high level of social activity
based on Christian principles.
Tolstoy’s
Philosophy irritated his wife Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya leading to a
marital distress. According to Parini (2009) Leo Tolstoy shaped his own version
of Christianity, discounting its miraculous aspects. Worse, from Sofia's
viewpoint, he threatened to give away all his property, including the copyright
to his work, to the Russian people. A psychodrama emerged, with Sofia battling
Tolstoy's disciples for access to his soul. Her diaries become increasingly
frenzied in the 1880s and 90s, and the last decade of Tolstoy's life
(1900-1910) makes for harrowing reading, as in this entry for 19 November 1903:
What I predicted
indeed has come true: my passionate husband has died, and since he was never a
friend to me, how could he be one to me now? This life is not for me. There is
nowhere for me to put my energy and passion for life; no contact with people,
no art, no work – nothing but total loneliness all day ( Parini, 2009).
Tolstoy’s
conflicts with his wife intensified in the later years. He left her and his
native home. Hence metaphorically Leo Tolstoy murdered his wife by renouncing
her. Following Tolstoy’s permanent departure his wife Sophia Tolstaya tried to
commit suicide. When he was in his final
hours at the Astopovo station he refused to see his wife for the one last time.
Tolstoy’s anger and resentment towards his wife entirely covered his Christian
ideals of forgiveness.
One of the most
notable convictions of Tolstoy was hostility towards sex. Sexual hostility was
an uncommon feature among the other Russian writers such as Dostoevsky,
Chekhov, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn. In
1888 Tolstoy stated that people should no longer engage in sexual love but
later admitted that he was dismayed for
that conclusion. However he preached the superiority of abstinence (
Rancourt-Laferer, 1998).
Was Tolstoy a
misogynist? This is a grim question. According to Rancourt-Laferer, (1998)
Tolstoy expressed his hostility to women often in different occasions. Tolstoy
quite openly expressed his misogyny.
Once he stated: To marry a young
lady means to accept all the poison of civilization."
Tolstoy had
largely met only two types of women in the pre-Revolutionary Russian society:
aristocratic women who were known for their extravagant indulging lifestyle and
the peasant women who were oppressed by the feudal system, patriarchy and by the Church. He witnessed
the immoral behaviour of the women who belonged to the upper and the lower
class. At the same time he saw love, compassion, empathy, charity etc
demonstrated by the women of both two classes. He assumed that men and women
are born pure and the civilization corrupt and poison them constantly.
Tolstoy cannot be
understood without taking the moral masochism in to consideration. For instance
the suicide of Anna Karenina is a literary embodiment of Tolstoy’s desire to
kill Anna or to punish himself for his lust, as well as his hatred for the
woman who cheated her husband
(Rancourt-Laferer, 1998). In War and Peace Tolstoy punishes Helen
Kuragina (Pierre Bezukhov’s
wife) who bears a
scheming and immoral character. After facing numerous scandals and humiliations
Helen dies of Angina Pectoris. It was an undignified death that was imposed on
Helen by Leo Tolstoy.
Young Leo Tolstoy
engaged in duels
when he lived in the Caucasus.
He had a fascination to kill his opponents which he later regrettably admitted.
In War and Peace Dolokhov humiliates Pierre
Bezukhov at a dinner party. Dolokhov’s disrespectful behaviour fuels Pierre’s
anger. Pierre declares a duel. He wants to retaliate and quench his anger. He
wants to kill the man who slept with his wife. Like Pozdnyshev (in Kreutzer
Sonata) Pierre is tormented by sexual jealousy and ready to commit a murder.
In the duel Pierre
wounds Dolokhov. Although Pierre was able to retaliate and partially fulfilled
his desire to destroy Dolokhov his inner thoughts change rapidly. Pierre is
repenting over his quick decision and wounding his opponent. Pierre leaves St
Petersburg and starts his long spiritual journey. Pierre becomes a Free Mason
thinking that it would help him to restore his pride and fill the existential
vacuum. But soon he realizes the emptiness in their rituals. He dedicates his
life to another mission.
Pierre Bezukhov wants to end the evil. He decides
to kill Napoleon the Antichrist who unleashed evil upon Russian and French
people. Pierre considers this as a sacred mission and he is ready to sacrifice
his life. His sexual jealousy has converted in to a generalized anger and it
has been focused on Napoleon.
Friedrich Hegel
saw Napoleon as the world-spirit on horseback.
However Tolstoy sophisticatedly presents the complex nature
of Napoleon’s character that is filled with overconfidence, narcissism,
selfishness, power hugeness, bravery, and cruelty. In contrast Tolstoy reveals
how Napoleon’ cared for his soldiers who were dying of plague. However his self-centeredness was well exposed during
the Russian campaign. Napoleon abandoned his troops and escaped leaving his
soldiers to die in the harsh Russian winter. Tolstoy too named Napoleon
Bonaparte as the Beast. Tolstoy presents a verse from the Book of Revelation
13:18. – (This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate
the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.)Tolstoy
identifies Napoleon Bonaparte as the Beast – the Antichrist.
According to
Tolstoy Napoleon was an evil military genius but he could not break the will of
the Russian people. Napoleon Bonaparte’s downfall occurred with his 1812 Russian
campaign. Napoleon’s invincible Grand Army sustained many losses in the Battle
of Borodino.
To anyone who looks at the field of Borodino
without thinking of how the battle was actually fought, this position,
protected by the river Kolocha, presents itself as obvious for an army whose
object was to prevent an enemy from advancing along the Smolensk road to
Moscow....... The battle of
Borodino was not fought on a chosen and entrenched position with forces only
slightly weaker than those of the enemy, but, as a result of the loss of the
Shevardino Redoubt, the Russians fought the battle of Borodino on an open and
almost unentrenched position, with forces only half as numerous as the French;
that is to say, under conditions in which it was not merely unthinkable to
fight for ten hours and secure an indecisive result, but unthinkable to keep an
army even from complete disintegration and flight. (War and Peace by Leo
Tolstoy)
Napoleon invaded
Russia with over 680 000 soldiers. The Battle of Borodino becomes a turning
point in the history. As Tolstoy narrates the Beast is seriously wounded. His
Moscow invasion invariably becomes a fiasco. The General Kutuzov closely observes the movements of the beast. He uses three decisive weapons against Napoleon.
Those are patience, timely retreat and the approaching Russian winter.
The invading French army had
to face periodical resistance by the Russian Imperial Army. The Cossack
horsemen constantly attacked Napoleon’s supply lines. The enemy became
impatient. Lack of food, desertion, disease, exhaustion weakened the Napoleon’s
Army. He lost more than 500,000 soldiers during the invasion. Nearly 100,000 became
prisoners of war. Only 10,000 of them
returned to France alive.
Tolstoy found that
the historians seemed to agree; they asserted, as he puts it in his novel, that
thousands of people went from west to east and killed each other just because a
single man told them to. Even those historians interested in multiple causes
never seemed to respect enough of them, thought Tolstoy. Great occurrences like
the Napoleonic invasion happen not because one man dictates the movement of
history, but because hundreds of thousands of motives and accidents and
reactions occur at once; Tolstoy called this the "swarm -like life, where
man inevitably fulfils the laws prescribed for him". He is really a kind
of historical fatalist who spends the course of his novel searching for the
laws of that fatalism. Napoleon and great men like him think of themselves as
supremely free, but in fact they are the servants of history, as caught up in
that "swarm -like" existence as the meanest hussar (Wood, 2014).
Man's mind cannot grasp the causes
of events in their completeness, but
the desire to find those causes is implanted in man's soul. And without
considering the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions any one of which
taken separately may seem to be the cause, he snatches at the first
approximation to a cause that seems to him intelligible and says: “This is the
cause!” In historical events (where the actions of men are the subject of
observation) the first and most primitive approximation to present itself was
the will of the gods and, after that, the will of those who stood in the most
prominent position- the heroes of history. But we need only penetrate to the
essence of any historic event- which lies in the activity of the general mass
of men who take part in it- to be convinced that the will of the historic hero
does not control the actions of the mass but is itself continually ( War and
Peace by Leo Tolstoy)
With a new plan Pierre Bezukhov decides to go to
Moscow. There he witnesses the French invasion of Moscow. The great city of
Moscow is in flames. In Moscow Pierre rescues a French officer and they become
friends. The French officer was surprised by Pierre’s knowledge of French and
his natural accent.
Pierre Bezukhov’s mission ends suddenly when he
becomes a prisoner. The French Officers think that Pierre is a Russian spy. He
had to join with the other prisoners. There he meets another prisoner named
Platòn Karataev.
The character of Platòn Karataev is relatively small
but very inspiring. As the book describes Platòn Karataev is a peasant
with simple and true qualities which Tolstoy admired most. The author becomes a
prophet and a moral reformer who speaks to the reader directly. Platòn
Karatheave becomes his mouthpiece.
Karataev embodies ultimate wisdom for Pierre: a
sustainment of spirit in the face of adversarial, life-denying forces. Karataev
idealized family life but he also is happy that his service in the army spared
his brother’s family from losing his brother. Pierre’s example embodies both
the values of a nurturing family and the value of committing one’s life to the
greater good (Itriyeva, 2008).
All the prisoners were taken by the French Army in their long retreat.
The prisoners walk with the French Army in harsh winter. Karataev and Pierre walk together.
During the long retreat the French soldiers shoot enfeeble Russian
prisoners who cannot march further. Pierre
helps weaken Platòn Karataev to walk but he becomes more and more exhausted. Finally Platòn Karatheave was shot by a
French soldier. Pierre becomes puzzled by witnessing the dark side of human nature in a
war situation.
But what is war? What is needed for success in
warfare? What are the habits of the military? The aim of war is murder; the
methods of war are spying, treachery, and their encouragement, the ruin of a
country's inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army, and
fraud and falsehood termed military craft. The habits of the military class are
the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty,
debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all this it is the highest class,
respected by everyone. All the kings, except the Chinese, wear military
uniforms, and he who kills most people receives the highest rewards (War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy).
As
an officer who saw active combat, Tolstoy knew in a battle who the real war
heroes were. The real war heroes are the type of people that never blow their
own trumpet. They do their sanctified military duty in the battle and they are
not interested in military glory.
Often they do not get the recognition. Those who cowardly evaded the battle
field later become decorated war heroes. Leo Tolstoy tells the reader the irony
of real war heroes unveiling the story of Captain Tushin.
According to the novel Captain Tushin is an artillery officer who fought
bravely at the Battle of Schöngrabern. Prince Andrei Bolkonski witnesses the heroic
efforts of Captain Tushin who commands his artillery battery. Although other battery commanders withdrew
their cannons and men when the attacks
intensified Captain Tushin’s cannons are constantly sending deadly messages to
the French forces. Eventually his battery ends up alone and
unsupported. However Captain Tushin's counter attacks delay the enemy
advance. This allows the Russian troops to withdraw successfully
evading a major loss. Captain Tushin's effort becomes one of
the decisive factors of successful withdrawal.
Later that evening the Russian commanders gather
together and discuss the events which occurred at the battle field. No one
praises Captain Tushin's heroic efforts. Instead some staff
officers who left the battle field cowardly blame the Captain
Tushin for abandoning some of his cannons. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky listens
to the staff officers and finally he tells the General Bagration
that Captain Tushin and his men delayed the French advance saving the rest
of the Army.
All were silent. Tushin appeared at the threshold
and made his way timidly from behind the backs of the generals. As he stepped
past the generals in the crowded hut, feeling embarrassed as he always was by
the sight of his superiors, he did not notice the staff of the banner and
stumbled over it. Several of those present laughed.
"How was it a gun was abandoned?" asked
Bagration, frowning, not so much at the captain as at those who were laughing,
among whom Zherkov laughed loudest. Only
now, when he was confronted by the stern authorities, did his guilt and the
disgrace of having lost two guns and yet remaining alive present themselves to
Tushin in all their horror. He had been so excited that he had not thought
about it until that moment. The officers' laughter confused him still more. He
stood before Bagration with his lower jaw trembling and was hardly able to
mutter: "I don't know... your excellency... I had no men... your
excellency."
"You might have taken some from the covering
troops."
Tushin did not say that there were no covering
troops, though that was perfectly true. He was afraid of getting some other
officer into trouble, and silently fixed his eyes on Bagration as a schoolboy
who has blundered looks at an examiner.
The silence lasted some time. Prince Bagration, apparently not wishing
to be severe, found nothing to say; the others did not venture to intervene.
Prince Andrew looked at Tushin from under his brows and his fingers twitched
nervously.
"Your excellency!" Prince Andrew broke
the silence with his abrupt voice," you were pleased to send me to Captain
Tushin's battery. I went there and found two thirds of the men and horses
knocked out, two guns smashed, and no supports at all."
Prince
Bagration and Tushin looked with equal intentness at Bolkonski, who spoke with suppressed agitation. "And, if your
excellency will allow me to express my opinion," he continued, "we
owe today's success chiefly to the action of that battery and the heroic
endurance of Captain Tushin and his company," and without awaiting a
reply, Prince Andrew rose and left the table.
Prince
Bagration looked at Tushin, evidently reluctant to show distrust in Bolkonski's
emphatic opinion yet not feeling able fully to credit it, bent his head, and
told Tushin that he could go. Prince Andrew went out with him.
"Thank
you; you saved me, my dear fellow!" said Tushin.
(War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy).
One time Leo
Tolstoy was an ambitious young officer who served in the Crimean War. He took part in the defense of Sevastopol. There
he witnessed horror and despair and as a result of battle stress he gradually
experienced a personality change. The climax of this personality change
occurred many years after the war when he
was traveling to buy an estate. He had to stay in a motel and in the
middle of the night he walked up with a mortal fear. This could have been a
sever anxiety attack and this incident made distinct changes in him. Tolstoy was plagued by fear of death and mortal fear
becomes one of the focal parts in the novel -War and Peace. Tolstoy experienced persistent sorrow and emptiness
(Clinical Depression?)Which he described in his autobiographical book “Confession”
I cannot recall those years
without horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain. I killed people in war,
challenged men to duels with the purpose of killing them, and lost at cards; I
squandered the fruits of the peasants' toil and then had them executed; I was a
fornicator and a cheat. Lying, stealing, promiscuity of every kind,
drunkenness, violence, murder - there was not a crime I did not commit...Thus I
lived for ten years."
In his life a number of times
Tolstoy went in profound depression and seclusion. This depression, which was melancholic in character, almost destroyed
him and, once he had finished Anna Karenina, led him to want to renounce not
only sexuality but also literary creation and material possessions. Like
Leonardo da Vinci, Tolstoy turned away from his artistic work,
declaring that 'art is not only useless but even harmful', and thereafter
devoted himself to philosophical, political and religious writings
(Anargyros-Klinger, 2002).
As illustrated by Bergner
(1998) Tolstoy, at a point in his life when he was contemplating suicide,
expressed the basis for his despair and crisis of meaning in the following way:
"What will come from what I am doing now, and may do tomorrow? What will come from my whole life? otherwise
expressed--Why should I live? Why should
I wish for anything? Why should I do
anything? Again, in other words, is
there any meaning in my life which will not be destroyed by the inevitable
death awaiting me."
Prince Andrei Bolkonski mostly represent
Tolstoy’s military period. Prince
Andrei portrayed as a cynical man who was tired of his wealth and family glory.
He goes in search of a new life adventure.
Prince Andrew
finds no meaning in his tedious but comfortable married life with Lisa. He wants to make history and to be a large
part of it. He wants to be with new kind of heroes such as General Kutuzov, General Bagration , Napoleon Bonaparte etc. He was looking forward to find his greatness
in the Battle of Austerlitz.
When Andrei Bolkonski was wounded in the battle he sees the blue sky
which represents the emptiness. Andrei’s NDE (Near Death Experience) makes
him more matured and finally he
realizes military glory, encounter with his former hero Napoleon, making history
etc all were insignificant empty attempts.
He realized the true meaning of human suffering. But he becomes more
cynical and alienated.
Gazing into Napoleon's eyes,
Prince Andrei mused on the unimportance of greatness, the unimportance of life
which no one could understand, and the still greater unimportance of death, the
meaning of which no one alive could understand or explain (War
and Peace by Leo Tolstoy)
After his wife’s
death Prince Andrei Bolkonsky meets Natalia
Rostova who is an innocent and a charming girl. She is the daughter of Russian Count
Ilya Rostov and his wife, Countess Natalya Rostova. Her character is
often considered to be one of Tolstoy’s grandest creations, with her ability to
live life to the fullest, with true joyfulness and great energy. Her character
also has the ability to charm both the fictional characters in the novel and
also people who read the book (Kingsley,
2013). Natasha Rostova becomes Tolstoy's heroine.
Although Prince Andrei Bolkonski and Natalia Rostova
become engaged Andrei’s father imposes serious stipulations and it wrecks their
friendship. This gives a fine opportunity to Helen Kuragin’s brother Anatoly
Kuragin to enter in to Natalia Rostova’s life. Anatoly Kuragin is described as
a debaucher and a fraudulent character. With Helen’s consent and fullest support
Anatoly Kuragin seduces Natalia Rostova and destroys her relationship with Andrei Bolkonsky. When Natalia Rostova
realized that she was deceived and betrayed by Anatoly Kuragin who was
previously married she goes in to a serious form of reactive depression.
However after a long time she meets Prince Andrei Bolkonski in a critical condition. He is wounded in the battle and dying of
peritonitis. Natalia Rostova cares for wounded Andrei until his death. After Andrei Bolkonski’s death Natalia Rostova
goes in to a dramatic transformation. Eventually she becomes the wife of Andrei Bolkonski’s dear friend Pierre Bezukhov.
Tolstoy
illustrates the phenomenon of death in his great epic War and Peace. He wrote:
Death, which will end everything and which must come today or tomorrow - in a
moment, anyhow, compared with eternity. He vividly describes the deaths of Count Kirill Bezukhov (Pierre Bezukhov’s father) and Prince Nicholas Bolkonski. The Count Kirill Bezukhov dies slowly and Prince Nicholas
Bolkonski suffers a stroke and heading towards death. The clinical detail
employed in this case illustrates how Tolstoy used symbolic
characters without sacrificing the realism of War and Peace (Albin, 1990).
The death of Prince Andrei Bolkonski is a central them in
the book. Tolstoy shows death as an honest prospect.
Not only did Prince Andrew know he
would die, but he felt that he was dying and was already half dead. He was
conscious of an aloofness from everything earthly and a strange and joyous
lightness of existence. Without haste or agitation he awaited what was coming.
That inexorable, eternal, distant, and unknown the presence of which he had
felt continually all his life- was now near to him and, by the strange
lightness he experienced, almost comprehensible and palpable... Formerly he had
feared the end. He had twice experienced that terribly tormenting fear
of death- the end- but now he no longer understood that fear. He had felt it
for the first time when the shell spun like a top before him, and he
looked at the fallow field, the bushes, and the sky, and knew that he was face
to face with death. When he came to himself after being wounded and the flower
of eternal, unfettered love had instantly unfolded itself in his soul as if
freed from the bondage of life that had restrained it, he no longer feared
death and ceased to think about it. ( War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy)
The centerpiece of Tolstoy’s
world view is the belief that meaning cannot be found in the world as it is—a
world in which one must die. In his view, the fact that both oneself and all of
one’s efforts and accomplishments are ineluctably doomed to extinction renders
them utterly pointless and futile. It was precisely this belief that brought
Tolstoy to his deepest despair and to the brink of suicide (Bergner, 2010).
Later in life Count Tolstoy formulated a stereotype unique philosophy.
Although he was criticized by the clergy and even excommunicated by the Russian
Orthodox Church Tolstoy believed that
philosophic principles can only be understood in their concrete expression in
history.
War and Peace reflects Tolstoy's view -that all is predestined.
Tolstoy believed that history is determined by a number of facts and no
individual can change the course of history. He writes no one controls events
not even Napoleon or General Kutuzov Commander-in-chief of
the Russian forces or the Tsar
Alexander I. In his epic novel Tolstoy makes an attempt to
explain the theory of how history works.
In his own words Leo Tolstoy states
"In historical
events great men - so-called - are but labels serving to give a name to the
event, and like labels they have the least possible connection with the event
itself. Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own free
will, is in an historical sense not free at all, but in bondage to the whole
course of previous history, and predestined from all eternity."
This philosophy was later grasped by many
novelists and film directors. For instance in the movie Wind and the Lion (Starring
Sean Connery Sean Connery) the nomad leader of the desert Raisuli compares his place in the universe
as a pawn in the chess game which he has no control . Tolstoy once said “man
lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the
attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity”
According to Itriyeva (2008) the
ultimate wisdom of War and Peace ends in the ambiguous conflict of admitting
ever-changing forces of history and exposing oneself to history while also
attempting to create life-sustaining order.
Personal Communications
1)
Professor Raymond M. Bergner-Department of Psychology,
Illinois State University
2)
Professor Guy Proulx - Clinical Psychologist and
Professor of Psychology -Glendon Campus York University Canada
References
Albin, R.L.(1990). Arch Neurol.
47(2):225-6.The death of Nicholas Bolkonski. Neurology in Tolstoy's War and
Peace.
Anargyros-Klinger, A.(2002).
The thread of depression throughout the life and works of Leo Tolstoy.Int J
Psychoanal. 83(Pt 2):407-18.
Bergner, R .(1998).
Therapeutic approaches to problems of meaninglessness. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 52, pp.
1-16.
Bergner, R. (2010). The Tolstoy dilemma: A Paradigm
Case
Formulation and some therapeutic interventions.
Harding, L. (2010). Leo Tolstoy: the forgotten genius? The
Guardian.
Itriyeva, I .(2008). An Examination of Free Will in Tolstoy’s War and
Peace. Retrieved from http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=etd_hon_theses
Kingsley , H. (2013). Natasha Rostova from War and Peace by Leo
Tolstoy Retrieved from
http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/natasha-rostova-from-war-and-peace-by-leo-tolstoy-4372/
Lenin, V.I. Collected works,
vol. 16, p. 323; see also Leo Tolstoy as the mirror of the Russian
revolution,vol. 15, pp. 202-09.
Parini, J . (2009). The
Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy, translated by Cathy Porter.The Guardian, Saturday 5
December.
Rancourt-Laferer, D.
(1998 June 4). Presented at the 15th International Conference
"Psychoanalysis, literature and art", St. Petersburg.
Simmons, E.J. (1968).War
And Peace From Introduction To Tolstoy's Writings by Ernest J Simmons.
Retrieved from /smartboard/shop/smmnsej/tolstoy/chap5.htm
Thugushev,N.(
2006). Free Will in War and Peace.
Aporia vol. 16 no. 2.
Tolstoy, L.(1984). The Kingdom of God is
Within You. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Yegorov, S.F.
(1994). PROSPECTS: the quarterly review of comparative education (Paris,
UNESCO: International Bureau of Education), vol. XXIV p. 647–60.
Thanks, I Love the Book. Must read again. Long ago I have read the book.
ReplyDelete“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Chandi I agree with you this is a great book
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