“You are good to everyone, but you have some kind of pride in thought, and this is a big sin” (based on the novel War and Peace. Reflection on the spiritual quest of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky)

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L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is multi-problematic. One of the leading ones will be the problem of the spiritual quest of the main characters, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov.

The first acquaintance with Prince Andrei occurs at that period of his life when he makes a decision:

“Now I’m going to war, to the greatest war…,” he admits in a conversation with Pierre. But in order to try to get out of that “vicious circle”, Prince Andrei will need his whole life.

Already from the first meeting you notice something in him that makes you think: where does it come from in him? Why is he so internally rude and ignoble towards his wife Lisa. “Of all the faces that bored him, the face of his pretty wife seemed to bother him the most (and she is his chosen one, she is expecting a child from him). And in a conversation with Pierre about his wife, he admits: “This is one of those rare women with whom you can be dead for your honor, but, my God, what would I not give now, so as not to be married.” And a little later, in a conversation with Princess Marya, he will say “... Do you want to know if I am happy? No! Why is this? Don't know". Why such confusion of thought? Why such internal discord?

But the fact is that Prince Andrei is not at all interested in questions of worldly happiness, his mind is occupied by more significant thoughts. Prince Andrei is trying to find an answer to his main question: what is the highest meaning of life, what is he in the world, and what is the world for him? Such thoughts, of course, could only originate in the head of a thinking, progressive person, which was Andrey Bolkonsky. Pierre, for example, was always surprised by his extraordinary memory, erudition (“he read everything, knew everything, had an idea about everything”).

And looking at Andrei Bolkonsky, you can see that he himself is aware that in his mind he is superior to the guests of the Scherer salon. That is why he has a tired, bored look, a quiet measured step and some arrogance.

Once, in a conversation with her brother, Princess Marya will say to Prince Andrei: “You are good to everyone, but you have some kind of pride in thought, and this is a great sin.” And it becomes clear why Andrei Bolkonsky did not have happiness with Natasha. With her, it turned out, one cannot be dead for one's honor. And Natasha's principle, "if you want to be happy, be happy - he could neither understand nor accept."

But even with that “rare woman” happiness did not happen, because the pride of thought and the sin of pride inspired him that the most important thing in life is to be free, and “... tie yourself to a woman - and, like a chained convict, you lose all freedom.”

The tragedy of the fate of Andrei Bolkonsky, a man endowed with pride of thought, is a moral lesson that can serve for all time. What can pride of thought lead a person to? It leads to a reassessment of moral values, turns life, like a spiral, so complex, confusing, contradictory. The sin of pride is fraught with the fact that it gives rise to arrogance, ambition, selfishness in a person. The pride of thought dominates the mind of a person, cripples his soul, turns life into a "vicious circle", out of which a person is powerless.

Why does this "very handsome young man" have such pride in his thoughts? It can be explained in a short phrase: he lived, behaved like the son of Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. “If they kill you, old man, it will hurt ... And if I find out that I behaved not like the son of Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky, I will be ... ashamed.” Old Bolkonsky was a proud prince, never changing his mind. He also brought up his children, using the rules of only three words: it is necessary, it is necessary, it is necessary, instilling in them that the main thing in a person is honor, masculine and human dignity. All this is also in Prince Andrei: the same paternal pride, the same pride of thought.

Andrei Bolkonsky always, no matter what he did, did, pursuing one desire - the desire to be useful. With this desire, he decides to go "to the greatest war that has ever happened." But he also had his own, purely - innermost desire, personal. Proud sin inspires him that he, like Napoleon, whom he chose as his idol, with his mind is able to influence the course of history, that he also has his own Toulon. “I want fame, I want to be known to people, I want to be loved by them ...” - that's what he thinks about in front of Austerlitz. Andrei Bolkonsky did not want awards - glory. There is a logic: "Not for the sake of fame - for the sake of life on earth." But there is another; chosen by Prince Andrew. This is the logic of vanity, selfishness.

What is Prince Andrei thinking about? Only about himself, beloved. Just a few episodes ... Here he is, in a conversation with his father, like a great strategist, sets out the “operational plan of the proposed campaign.” Here he is, sent by Kutuzov by courier with a letter to the Austrian general, barely closing his eyes, he thinks. What are his thoughts on? A dream about what impression he would make on the general (he was sure that he would be presented to the emperor.) He chose the words with which he would address him. But in reality, everything will be exactly the opposite. Prince Andrei was introduced only to the Minister of War, who generally did not pay attention to the newcomer for the first two minutes. Ambition hurt.

And at the same moment, “the joyful feeling of Prince Andrei significantly weakened, turned into a feeling of insult and even contempt. The mindset changes dramatically: victory in the battle seems to him already a distant memory. But does this mean that emotional experiences have taken precedence over the feeling of the mind? Not at all. As before, the pride of thought inspires about its exclusivity, its special purpose. And, having learned about the French breakthrough, he decides to return to the army, without undue modesty, he will say: "I'm going to save the army." And on the eve of the Battle of Shengraben, Prince Andrei still thinks about his own, especially secret: “But where is it? How will my Toulon be expressed? And on the eve of Austerlitz, Prince Andrei first of all thinks about how he will look in his own eyes. “I will be sent there with a brigade or division, and there, with a banner in my hand, I will go forward and break everything that is in front of me.”

All will be. But not in the way that the proud thought of Prince Andrei inspired and imagined. He will see the fleeing, retreating soldiers, the wounded Kutuzov. Hear his words: “The wound is not here, but here!” pointing at the fleeing soldiers. No, Andrei will not save, and although he will not have that firm confidence in him, but, on the contrary, feeling tears of shame and anger, he will scream childishly piercingly. The voice of conscience will call him forward. And he will run towards the French, trying to stop the retreating soldiers.
And it is no longer the thought of how he will look in his own eyes, but the voice of conscience, a high understanding of military duty will force him to behave the way the son of Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky should have behaved.

Prince Andrei did not see how the struggle of the French with the artillerymen ended, the guns were taken or saved. " What is this? Am I falling?” he thought, and fell on his back. “Above him there was nothing but the sky, the high sky ... How quiet, calm and solemn, not at all the way I ran, the way we ran ... How could I not have seen this high sky before? And how happy I am that I finally got to know him. And most importantly, it became quiet and solemn in him.

A little later, Prince Andrei will meet with his "idol". “But at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant person ... All the interests that occupied Napoleon seemed so insignificant to him at that moment, his heroes themselves seemed so petty to him, with this petty vanity and joy of victory ...”

And a new stage of his life will begin for Prince Andrei, a new life will begin in his inner world. And the impetus for revival will be a dispute with Pierre about what life is. The night spent in Otradnoye breathed life into the soul of Andrei Bolkonsky, young Natasha, a girl excited by the beauty of the night.

It was then that such an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes suddenly arose in his soul, contradicting his whole life. And, perhaps, not a meeting with an oak tree, but earthly life heals Prince Andrei. Having received from his father an estate in Bogucharovo, he is engaged in the affairs of the estate. One estate of three hundred souls of peasants he lists as free cultivators, in another he replaces corvée with dues. In Bogucharovo, a learned grandmother was discharged to help women in childbirth, the priest taught peasant children to read and write. Prince Andrei's convictions are gradually changing: not proud thoughts about glory, about transforming the world, but friendly participation, female beauty and love can change life.

But did this mean that now the soul of Andrei Bolkonsky triumphed over the mind? Not at all
everything will go in a new circle. And again, the sin of pride inspires him with the thought of his ability to influence this life. As before, he will again strive for the ideal and again create an idol for himself. This time Napoleon will be replaced by Speransky. And Andrei Bolkonsky goes to St. Petersburg. “He now experienced in Petersburg a feeling similar to what he experienced on the eve of the battle, when he was irresistibly drawn to higher spheres, to where the future was being prepared, on which the fate of millions depended.”

But realizing that the liberal reforms of Speransky are at odds with life, that the activities of his idol do not contribute to the solution of his global issues, Prince Andrei breaks ties with him.

And once again the pride of thought leads Andrei Bolkonsky to disappointment.

Then a ball. Meeting with Natasha and the subsequent visit to the Rostovs' house. And in the mind for a moment, a hitherto uncharacteristic thought will flash: “As long as you are alive, you must live and be happy.” And in a conversation with Pierre, he admits: “I would not believe someone who would tell me that I can love like that?”

But was this love with all your soul and all your heart? True love is capable of forgiveness. Natasha
stirred the heart of Prince Andrei. But no more. He could not understand Natasha, a sixteen-year-old girl who is not at all tormented by the complex issues of life, she just lives. Prince Andrei cannot forgive Natasha's betrayal with Anatole Kuragin. The pride of thought whispers to him that to forgive is to wish that the other one who offended, offended, rose and had the right to stand. To forgive a fallen woman, yes, but not him and not that.

To forgive Andrei Bolkonsky, it took death.

A new stage in the life of Prince Andrei will begin with the Patriotic War of 1812. He returns to the army. Approaches the soldier mass. The soldiers call Prince Andrei none other than "our prince." He was caring and gentle with them.

The Patriotic War of 1812, the Borodino field will be the last attempt to break out of the "vicious circle". Fate predetermined such a path for Prince Andrei, when his pride of thought, eternally oscillating between good and evil, made the final choice only a moment before his death. Mortally wounded, Prince Andrei meets Natasha. And only in his dying delirium did the soul of Andrei Bolkonsky triumph over the mind. “You can love a dear person with human love; but only the enemy can be loved with divine love. It is Natasha - the enemy to love with "divine" love. Life could not convince Prince Andrei. It fell to the lot of death.

“Looking at Natasha, Prince Andrei imagined her soul for the first time. And he understood her feeling, her suffering, shame, remorse. For the first time he understood the cruelty of his refusal, saw the cruelty of his break with her. Only before his death, his thoughts were directed to her, the one to whom he now wanted to say ... (of course: “forgive me.”) And only at this dying hour did a short but happy moment of life come to Prince Andrei, that moment when “love for one woman imperceptibly crept into his heart.”

Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is a great artist, depicting, first of all, the dialectic of the soul of his heroes. In all his works, the writer turns to the moral search for heroes. In my opinion, the best of these heroes are Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov. Andrei Bolkonsky is Tolstoy's favorite hero, and it was to him that he destined a difficult fate. The writer first refers his hero to individualistic people. He wants to solve the problem of individualism, do away with it forever.

In Russian classical literature, not one

Tolstoy addressed this issue. Regardless of him, Dostoevsky in his novel "Crime and Punishment" solves the problem of individualism. There are common features in the content of the author's position of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky - this is a criticism of "Napoleonism".

Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and raznochinets Rodion Raskolnikov are brothers in their moral and psychological appearance. Both heroes are gloomy, gloomy, arrogant and proud, but at the same time they are generous and kind, sometimes cold and insensitive, really, as if in them two opposite characters are alternately replaced. Andrei Bolkonsky and Rodion Raskolnikov are related

Consciousness of their undoubted superiority, which influenced the development of their individualistic tendencies, claims to power. Napoleon, as the ideal of a "strong personality", captivated them passionately. But both, through severe trials, came to the realization of the futility and insignificance of the chosen ideal, to bitter disappointment in Napoleon .. They were saved by the same force - love and union with the people to whom they offered their power.

The first time we meet with Prince Andrei Bolkonsky at a ball at Mrs. Scherer's. Here enters the hall “... a very handsome young man with definite and dry features. Everything in his figure, from a tired, bored look to a quiet measured step, represented the sharpest contrast with his ... wife. He, apparently, was not only familiar with everyone in the living room, but had already tired him so much that it was very boring for him to look at them and listen to them. Already from the first words of the author, we understand that the environment in which Prince Andrei was brought up and lived was very tired of him. There are no real, thinking people in it, no good interlocutors: the whole society is petty and insignificant. In a conversation with Pierre, a man whom Andrei sincerely loved, he says that he wants to break out of this sphere, he wants and is going to go to war. But there are other, secret reasons that Prince Andrei does not tell anyone about: he dreams of fame like Napoleon's.

When Andrei arrives in the army, he sees all the unpreparedness of the Russian troops. Bolkonsky changes greatly under these conditions. There is no “in the expression of his face, in the movements, in the gait of the former pretense, fatigue and laziness”, he was engaged in a decent and interesting business for him. Many here do not like Prince Andrei either, they consider him a cold and unpleasant person, while others, however, a smaller part, love him, recognize him as an ideal. Once he learns that the army is in a hopeless situation, he decides to save it. He imagined himself to be a man "who will lead him out of the ranks of unknown officers and open the first path to glory for him!"

The ideal for Bolkonsky was Napoleon, his glory. He wanted to be the same. And here is the field of Austerlitz. There is a fight. People fall and die. The French kill the Russians, the Russians kill the French. For what? And Prince Andrei does not understand this.

Is it really necessary to risk tens of thousands and my, my life because of court and personal considerations? he thought. So disappointment came, Bolkonsky begins to doubt his thoughts and deeds. Complete insight comes to him on the field of Austerlitz. He runs with a banner in his hands for his glory, so what? He's wounded. And then, waking up, he sees a small and insignificant person - his ideal. Raises his eyes and ... Blue, high sky in front of him.

How quiet, calm and solemn ... clouds crawl across this high, endless sky in a completely different way ... Yes! everything is empty, everything is a lie, except for this endless sky ... there is nothing but silence, calmness. And thank God! .. Prince Andrei realized that the sky of Austerlitz had revealed to him the life of nature and man, that his ambitious dreams, the glory of Napoleon were already nothing.

Nothing, nothing is true, except for the insignificance of everything that is clear to me, and the greatness of something incomprehensible, but the most important! - Prince Andrei confirms new thoughts.

After being wounded, Bolkonsky returns home. But here, too, new challenges await him. A wife dies, but a son is born. Disappointed in his former aspirations and ideals, having experienced grief and repentance, he comes to the conclusion that he needs to live for himself and his loved ones. Earlier, when he said: “Death, wounds, loss of a family, nothing is scary to me. And no matter how dear or sweet to me many people are - father, sister ... I will give them all now for a moment of glory, triumph over people ..!” - he had an insignificant, but goal in life. Now it is gone. and he keeps saying to himself: "Life for myself, for my loved ones is the only thing that remains for me."

Prince Andrei, after the Austerlitz Company, firmly decided never to serve in the army. He took up state affairs - he helped his father. Fate threw him into Otradnoye - the estate of Count Rostov. On the way back and forth, Bolkonsky draws attention to the oak. Oak is a mighty tree, the personification of a future and full life. Andrei was struck by his beauty, he began to mentally compare him with himself. He was deeply moved by the charm of a fabulous night in Otradnoye, merging with Natasha's poetry. Yes, and Natasha herself struck him, that girl who, not knowing him, his life, simply and cheerfully laughs, runs around; she doesn't care about anyone. This hurt Andrei. He again plunges into his thoughts, seeks and finds a way out for himself - this is to live. All this finally returned Bolkonsky to a new and wonderful life. “No, life is not over at thirty-one,” Prince Andrei suddenly decided definitively, without fail. - Not only do I know everything that is in me, it is necessary that everyone knows this: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life goes not for me alone, so that they do not live like this girl, regardless of my life, so that it is reflected on everyone and that they all live with me together!

Prince Andrei was in one of the most advantageous positions in society. He was a widower, a very rich man. Society accepted him also because "he had a reputation for intelligence and great erudition." Bolkonsky has changed a lot. He began to appear in various circles, attend all kinds of balls and evenings. After Austerlitz, after Otradnoe, Prince Andrei began to truly live. But he did not stop in his moral quest, he was still searching. He seemed to have everything, but at the same time, something was missing. He thought a lot at this time. Prince Andrei, like all people who grew up in the world, liked to meet there that which did not have a common secular imprint. At one of the balls he meets Natasha. - He realized that he found what he was looking for,

And such was Natasha, with her surprise, joy, and timidity, and even mistakes in French,

After the ball, Bolkonsky began to visit the Rostovs often: he wanted to see Natasha. “Prince Andrei felt in Natasha the presence of a completely alien to him, a special world, full of some joys unknown to him, that alien world that even then, in Otradnenskaya alley and at the window on a moonlit night, so teased him. Now this world no longer teased him, was no longer an alien world; but he himself, having entered into it, found in it a new pleasure for himself. Bolkonsky and Rostova are different people: he is balanced, she is frisky, cheerful, but they have one thing that brings them together - this is spiritual and moral beauty, the poetry of nature. Natasha fell in love with Prince Andrei, he responds to her feelings, therefore, he is not yet deprived of the ability to love.

I've never experienced anything like it, I'm in love, he thought. - I would never believe it, but this feeling is stronger than me. Yesterday I suffered, suffered, but the torment of this me

I won't give it back for anything in the world. - I haven't lived before. Now only I live, but I can't live without her. Love raised Andrey even higher. He became more confident in his thoughts and judgments. But a year has passed and fate has done its job. Natasha refused ... Prince Andrei outwardly indifferently accepted this news, but his soul was restless. He became sad and gloomy, thought a lot about Natasha and said to himself and Pierre: “... I said that a fallen woman must be forgiven, but I did not say that I could forgive. I can't…"

1812. The Patriotic War began. Andrei, at the behest of his heart, returns to the army. He is now fighting not only for himself, for his relatives and friends, but also for the unfortunate, suffering Motherland. Andrei refuses Kutuzov's offer to serve in the headquarters, he remained a regimental commander. To this, Kutuzov, who loves and respects Andrei, says: “... your road is the road of honor. I'm happy for you." He was completely devoted to the affairs of his regiment, cared for his people and officers, was affectionate with them. “In the regiment they called him our prince, they were proud of him and loved him.”

The Battle of Borodino is a turning point in the life and worldview of Andrei Bolkonsky. Andrei is overtaken by a stupid death: he was not in position, but was wounded.

Is this death? I can't, I don't want to die, I love life, I love this grass, the earth, the air... At the dressing station Andrey comprehends a new truth for himself.

Suffering, love for brothers, for those who love, love for those who hate us, love for enemies - yes, that love that God preached on earth, and which I did not understand; that's why I felt sorry for life, that's what was left for me, if I were alive. But now it's too late. I know it! Yes, he discovered a new happiness, inalienable from a person. The person who has realized this is a real person. We live in a world where there is a lot of evil and injustice, and therefore we ourselves must fight for good. As L. N. Tolstoy himself wrote: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth,” - it should be so. A real person should have these three qualities. And in Andrei Bolkonsky they were.

The whole point of the ideological and moral evolution of Andrei Bolkonsky lies in the gradual overcoming of individualistic self-affirmation and turning to self-denial, complete and unconditional, already in the last hours and minutes of life. Passionate attachment to life is replaced by indifference to it and to one's "I". He regards the already approaching death as a merger with the general, transpersonal. While still alive, he is already pondering “the new beginning of eternal love opened to him,” which is so different from the flat selectivity of love. Explaining the dying state of Prince Andrei, Tolstoy writes: “Everything, to love everyone, to always sacrifice oneself for love, meant not to love anyone, meant not to live this earthly life. And the more he was imbued with this beginning of love, the more he renounced life ... "

The whole life of Bolkonsky was a kind of preparation for such a "merger". Under the sign of overcoming everything personal, the life of Prince Andrei passed: “That formidable, eternal, unknown and distant, the presence of which he did not cease to feel throughout his life, is now close and ... almost understandable and felt for him ... "

Tolstoy, with his work, affirms those norms of morality and justice that have been developed over the centuries. The idea of fraternal unity of man with man lies at the heart of the writer's works.

Love? What is love? Love prevents death. Love is life. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists only because I love. Everything is connected

Tolstoy liked to repeat Pushkin's joke: "You know what Tatyana threw out, she got married unexpectedly for me." The real hero of a psychological novel develops his own character, which the author cannot ignore.

Andrei Bolkonsky found himself at the center of Tolstoy's epic rather unexpectedly. To the question of a distant relative, where his hero came from, Tolstoy replied:

“In the battle of Austerlitz, which will be described, but with which I began the novel, I needed a brilliant young man to be killed; in the further course of my romance, I needed only the old man Bolkonsky with his daughter; but since it is embarrassing to describe a person who has nothing to do with the novel, I decided to make a brilliant young man the son of old Bolkonsky. Then he interested me, for him a role was presented in the further course of the novel, and I pardoned him, only seriously injuring him instead of death ”(Letter to L. I. Volkonskaya, May 3, 1865).

After the “pardon”, Prince Andrei moved forward in the epic to one of the first places. His spiritual path reflected the intellectual searches of educated Russian people of the early 19th century.

At the beginning of the novel, Andrei is a really disappointed, brilliant young man, indifferent to the world and his own family, in a difficult relationship with his father, a fragment of the former Catherine's era, dreaming of a quick career and world fame.

His dream is paradoxical: going to war with Napoleon, he dreams of repeating exactly his path, waiting for his Toulon.

D. Shmarinov. Prince Andrey

The battle of Austerlitz, where Prince Andrei shows true heroism, ends for him with a wound and personal defeat when he meets his recent idol. “He was burning his head; he felt that he was bleeding, and he saw above him a distant, lofty and eternal sky. He knew that it was Napoleon - his hero, but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant person in comparison with what was now happening between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running across it ”(vol. 1, part 3, ch. 19). small, insignificant man on the background high, just, good sky - this symbolic contrast is repeated several times in the episode. And here Tolstoy is preparing the next stage in the evolution of the hero: in delirium, Prince Andrei fondly recalls a peaceful family circle, father, wife, sister and future son.

Further events - recovery, unexpected return, the birth of a child and the death of his wife - only confirm the deep disappointment of the hero in the former ideal. In a conversation with Pierre in the Bald Mountains, Prince Andrei speaks of his intention to live for myself and their loved ones, not to live, but in fact survive in longing for his wife, boredom and expectation of death.

“I lived for fame. (After all, what is fame? The same love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praise.) So I lived for others and not almost, but completely ruined my life. And since then I have become calm, as I live for myself alone” (vol. 2, part 2, ch. 11).

But, as before, in the scene of a friendly conversation on the banks of the river, Tolstoy is preparing a new turning point in the mind of the hero. Listening to the enthusiastic Pierre, Prince Andrei for the first time after Austerlitz “saw that high, eternal sky that he saw while lying on the field of Austerlitz, and something long asleep, something better that was in him, suddenly woke up joyfully and young in his soul” (vol. 2, part 2, ch. 12).

This feeling is forgotten in the bustle of life, but revives again after a night in Otradnoye, Natasha's delights on a moonlit night and the sight of a tired, mangled oak, which, despite everything, comes back to life with spring (following the high sky, the hero's psychology is characterized with the help of a new symbol).

“The old oak tree, all transformed, spread out like a tent of juicy, dark greenery, was thrilled, slightly swaying in the rays of the evening sun. No clumsy fingers, no sores, no old grief and no trust - nothing was visible. Juicy, young leaves broke through the hundred-year-old tough bark without knots, so that it was impossible to believe that this old man had produced them. “Yes, this is the same oak tree,” thought Prince Andrei, and suddenly a causal spring feeling of joy and renewal came over him ...<...>.

“No, life is not over at thirty-one years old,” Prince Andrei suddenly decided definitively, invariably. “Not only do I know everything that is in me, it is necessary that everyone knows it: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life does not go on for me alone, so that they do not live like this girl, regardless of my life, so that it is reflected by all and that they all live with me together! 3, chapter 3).

With a new return to the big world, Prince Andrei is trying to combine previously separated public and personal interests. He participates in Speransky's transformations and falls in love with Natasha.

“And for the first time after a long time he began to make happy plans for the future. He decided by himself that he needed to take up the education of his son, finding him an educator and instructing him; then you have to retire and go abroad, see England, Switzerland, Italy. “I need to use my freedom while I feel so much strength and youth in myself,” he said to himself. “Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and now I believe in him. Let us leave the dead to bury the dead, but while alive, we must live and be happy,” he thought ”(vol. 2, part 3, ch. 19).

The revival of the hero through love turns out to be the third stage of his spiritual biography and again ends in disaster: Natasha's mistake, caused by Lip tol Kuragin's infatuation. Like the death of a wife, betrayal) does not happen again the day before: on the eve of the return of the prince and the appointed wedding.

In a conversation with Pierre, Prince Andrei again - but in a different form - shows his aristocracy, pride, inability to forgive, reminiscent of heroic thinking and past hobbies by Napoleon.

“Listen, you remember our dispute in Petersburg,” said Pierre, “remember about ...

“I remember,” Prince Andrei hastily answered, “I said that a fallen woman must be forgiven, but I did not say that I could forgive. I can't.

- Is it possible to compare this? .. - said Pierre. Prince Andrew interrupted him. He shouted sharply:

- Yes, again to ask for her hand, to be generous and the like? .. Yes, it is very noble, but I am not able to follow in the footsteps of this gentleman. If you want to be my friend, don't ever talk to me about this ... about all this ”(vol. 2, part 5, ch. 21).

The situation changes dramatically when the war comes to the threshold of one's home. Tolstoy realizes this metaphor: Andrei finds himself in the deserted Bald Mountains. In a tragic time for the whole of Russia, Tolstoy's hero also enters the sphere of the epic, imbued with the pathos of defending his native land. This new turning point is prepared by an outwardly imperceptible, but very important scene for the evolution of the hero.

Already leaving the estate, Andrei sees two little village girls carrying green plums from the greenhouse and trying to hide when the "young master" appears.

“A new, gratifying and reassuring feeling seized him when, looking at these girls, he realized the existence of other, completely alien to him and just as legitimate human interests as those that occupied him. These girls, obviously, passionately desired one thing - to carry away and finish eating these green plums and not be caught, and Prince Andrei together with them wished the success of their enterprise. He couldn't help but look at them again. Considering themselves to be safe, they jumped out of the ambush and, holding their hem, merrily and quickly ran through the grass of the meadow with their tanned bare legs, in thin voices, holding their hemlines for some food ”(vol. 3, part 2, ch. 5).

Proud and selfish, busy with intense inner work, the hero discovers for the first time a very simple thing: diversity of the world existence other people with their special lives and special interests.

This feeling that flashed through the mind of Prince Andrei quickly disappears. In the same chapter, returning to the regiment, Bolkonsky hears from the soldiers the nickname "our prince”, but so far he cannot recognize these people floundering in a dirty pond as his own. And later (vol. 3, part 2, ch. 24), on the eve of the battle of Borodino, reviewing in the light of the “magic lantern” “the main pictures of his life”, the hero sees in her three main griefs: in love for a woman, the death of his father and the French invasion, which captured half of Russia.

But immediately after that, in another conversation with Pierre, offended personal pride finally gives way to another feeling.

“- So you think that tomorrow's battle will be won? Pierre said.

“Yes, yes,” Prince Andrei said absently. “One thing I would do if I had the power,” he began again, “I would not take prisoners. What are prisoners? This is chivalry. The French have ruined my house and are going to ruin Moscow, and have insulted and insult me every second. They are my enemies, they are all criminals, according to my concepts. And Timokhin and the whole army think the same way. They must be executed” (vol. 3, part 2, ch. 25).

On the eve of the battle of Borodino, from the former knight of honor, who imitated his idol Napoleon, a person insulted by the enemy invasion is born, fighting not for the sake of personal glory and his Toulon, but to protect his land, his homeland, finally feeling himself a part of a common life, coinciding in folk thought with Captain Timokhin and the last soldier.

This is how Prince Andrei’s transition to a new state was prepared: “War is not a courtesy, but the most disgusting thing in life, and one must understand this and not play war. We must take strictly and seriously this terrible necessity. Pierre, during this conversation, also finally realizes hidden warmth of patriotism,"which was in all those people whom he saw, and which explained to him why these people calmly and, as it were, thoughtlessly prepared for death."

There is a hidden symbolism in the fact that the hero, who, according to Tolstoy's original thought, should have died in someone else's battle at Austerlitz, is mortally wounded on the Borodino field. Moreover, he does not heroically run into the attack, dragging the soldiers, but is in reserve. It is not even business that unites him with other people, but fate, fate.

The meeting with Anatole Kuragin is the culmination of the rebirth of Andrei Bolkonsky. At the sight of the terrible suffering of his immoral rival, the hero finally gives up pride and self-confidence, gaining a new meaning in life.

“Prince Andrei could not restrain himself any longer and wept tender, loving tears over people, over himself and over their and his own delusions.

"Compassion, love for brothers, for those who love, love for those who hate us, love for enemies - yes, that love that God preached on earth, which Princess Mary taught me and which I did not understand; that's why I felt sorry for life, that's what I still had if I were alive. But now it's too late. I know this!"

The Bolkonsky family gene is a rational, reflective attitude to the world. “Know” in their life and behavior prevails over “feel” or “live”. “Oh, my soul, lately it has become hard for me to live. I see that I began to understand too much. And it’s not good for a person to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ... ”- Prince Andrei confesses to Pierre in a conversation before the Battle of Borodino. Therefore, the hero dies after knows, understands the same it, which is behind a locked door.

Death is understood by Bolkonsky as liberation from sleep and awakening to a new life.

"Yes, it was death. I died - I woke up. Yes, death - awakening!" - suddenly brightened in his soul, and the veil that had hidden the unknown until now was lifted before his spiritual gaze. He felt, as it were, the release of the previously bound strength in him and that strange lightness that has not left him since then.

But this episode ends, after all, not with a final solution, but with a riddle that worried Tolstoy all his life. “Where did he go? Where is he now?.. ”- Natasha asks an unanswered question (vol. 4, part 1, ch. 16).

Romantic dreams of glory - disappointment and a transition to private existence - a return to life through love - a new crisis and familiarization with the hidden warmth of patriotism during national trials - the key to death as eternal, divine love: this is the way of life of Andrei Bolkonsky. Tolstoy rings it with two symbols: the high infinite sky at the first epiphany of the hero; locked door, behind which lies the terrible it, at the end of his earthly journey.

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Sections: Literature

Lesson Objectives:

Disclosure of the moral path of searching for the protagonist, the problem of the formation and improvement of a person - a participant in historical events and the life of the people;
- formation of research work skills;
- development of creative imagination and thinking;
- formation of ideas about moral values;
- fostering a love for fiction.

Software: multimedia presentation of the teacher (based on the electronic educational manual "Literature 5-11 grades"), multimedia projector and screen, computers. (Slides 1-3), portrait of Leo Tolstoy.

Technical assistance : laboratory assistant .

During the classes

1. Introductory speech of the teacher.

Life, in Tolstoy's understanding, a true, honest and lively human life, has always meant an eternal search, mistakes, falls, and next to them, inseparably from them, good discoveries and insights, enriched souls. Such a life lived Tolstoy's favorite heroes. Such was his own life. Tolstoy always sought to penetrate the very essence of phenomena. So he showed us the feelings of man and his thoughts.

The history of the people, according to Tolstoy, is the real, inner history that he sought to recreate in the novel "War and Peace" - this is the life of the people, private family and personal life, and the relationships that develop between people.

But history is also the search for social thought, it is life, the movements of human consciousness.

Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov, heroes of a high intellectual level, express in the novel, first of all, precisely this very important, spiritual side of historical life. As Tolstoy later wrote, “... spiritual activity is the greatest, most powerful force. She moves the world...

Andrei and Pierre, not only in the historical sense, but also in the moral, psychological, are the closest characters to Tolstoy. They are close to him most of all because they are in constant motion, in doubts and searches, in continuous internal development. Just as it was with Tolstoy himself: their life is a journey. The path of discoveries and disappointments, the path of crisis and in many ways dramatic. The path is special, uniquely personal - and at the same time full of deep historical significance.

Task 1 for research: (at the address on the Internet www.levtolstoy.org.ru) find and explore Tolstoy's reflections on the meaning of life. (Appendix No. 1) (commenting and discussing the results).

Teacher: Today in the lesson we have to answer the question: (Slide 4)

What was the result of the moral path of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky?

Let us turn to the image of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.

2. Conversation on questions (conversation plan on the slide) (Slide 5)

Question 1 : Under what circumstances do we first meet Prince Andrei?(Slide 6)

Teacher: Tolstoy begins his story in 1805. Full of ambitious aspirations, Andrei goes to war.

Question 2: Why did Prince Andrei go to war, and how did he prove himself in the war?

Study of the chapters of the text vol. 1 pt. 2 ch. 11-19, pt. 3 ch. 11-13, 17-19.

(commenting and discussing the results obtained)

Teacher: Together with Andrei, we understand what is true, great and important for a person and history. After captivity, having recovered from his wound, he returns home to the Bald Mountains,

Question 3 : What tests fell on Andrey upon returning home?

Study of the chapters of the text v.2 pt.1 ch.7-9, pt.2 ch.7-9, ch.10-14.