In his outstanding novel "War and Peace" L.N. Tolstoy showed the life of Russian society early XIX century. He, trying to understand the importance of a woman in society, the family, creates in the work a lot of female images that can be divided into two categories: in the first there are women of the national ideal, such as Marya Bolkonskaya, Natasha Rostova and others, and in the second - representatives of high society - Anna Scherer, Helen and Julie Kuragin.
One of the most prominent female images is the image of Natasha Rostova, in which Tolstoy realized the best qualities of a person. Nobility and modesty make her more charming than the prudent, intelligent Helen Kuragina with her secular manners. Many fragments of the novel tell how Natasha lends a helping hand to people, makes them kinder, helps them find love for life, gives advice, makes others feel happier without demanding anything in return.
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So, when Nikolai Rostov comes home after losing money to Dolokhov, with a sense of hopelessness, having heard Natasha's singing, he regains the joy of life: “All this: misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all nonsense, and here she is for real.”
In addition to everything, Natasha is close to the perception of the incredible beauty of nature. Describing the night in Otradnoye, Tolstoy compares the mood of two sisters, Sonya and Natasha. Natasha, admiring the beauty of the night sky, exclaims: “After all, such a lovely night has never happened!” However, Sonya is not close to the state of her friend, she does not have that spark that is inherent in Natasha. Sonya is sincere, affectionate, gentle, friendly. She is too correct, does not take actions from which one could learn lessons and develop further. And unlike her, Natasha constantly makes mistakes and draws some conclusions; has feelings for Prince Andrei, something unites their souls. However, then he suddenly falls in love with Anatoly Kuragin. This suggests that Natasha is a simple person with imperfections.
Marya Bolkonskaya is the opposite of Natasha, but in some ways she is similar to her. Its main feature is self-sacrifice, which is combined in it with humility and the desire for happiness. Obedience to the orders of the father, a ban on protesting his desires - understanding his role as the daughter of Princess Mary. But if necessary, she can demonstrate a firm character. Putting self-sacrifice above all else, she destroys something truly important in herself; and yet, it was sacrificial love that allowed her to find happiness in the family. Marya truly revealed her personal qualities when the state of affairs forced her to show independence after the death of her father, and also when she became a mother and wife.
These two similar women are opposed by ladies of high society - Anna Pavlovna Scherer, Helen Kuragina, Julie Kuragina. They are similar in many ways.
With these images, L.N. Tolstoy shows that simple women living an ordinary life, such as Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, find family happiness, while secular ladies, far from moral values, are not able to achieve true happiness because of self-love and devotion to false and empty ideals of the highest. society.
Updated: 2018-04-27
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The great Russian writers of the 19th century, creating positive female images , have always focused not on perfect facial features or the beauty of the figure, but on wealth inner world their heroines, which spiritualizes their appearance. Such, for example, are Pushkin's Tatyana Larina or Turgenev's Liza Kalitina. The same artistic principle was used by L.N. Tolstoy. Female images in the novel "War and Peace" play important role. They not only determine the behavior of the main characters, but also have an independent meaning. As well as male images, they reveal the author's idea of beauty, good and evil. When depicting his heroines, the writer used the technique of opposition. Comparing completely different girls in terms of character, upbringing, aspirations and beliefs - Natasha Rostova, Marya Bolkonskaya and Helen Kuragina, Tolstoy sought to express the idea that emptiness and pretense often hide behind external beauty, and behind visible ugliness - the wealth of the inner world.
Natasha Rostova and Maria Bolkonskaya- Tolstoy's favorite heroines with opposite characters. emotional, charming, full of life and movements Natasha immediately stands out among the restrained, well-bred noblewomen. For the first time, she appears in the novel as a thirteen-year-old black-eyed, ugly, but lively girl who, flushed from a quick run, literally bursts into the living room, where adults are having a boring conversation. Together with Natasha, a fresh breath of life bursts into this sedate world. More than once Tolstoy emphasizes that Natasha was not beautiful. She may be beautiful, or she may be ugly - it all depends on her state of mind. In her soul, hard work does not stop for a second, which is not accessible to the prying eye.
Natasha's spiritual beauty, her love of life, her lust for life extend to those close and dear to her: Petya, Sonya, Boris, Nikolai. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky unwittingly became involved in the same world. Boris Drubetskoy, a childhood friend with whom Natasha was bound by a childhood oath, could not resist her charm. Natasha meets Boris when she is already 16 years old. “He rode with the firm intention of making it clear to her and her family that the childish relationship between him and Natasha could not be an obligation either for her or for him.” But when he saw her, he lost his head, because he also plunged into her world of joy and goodness. He forgot that he wanted to marry a rich bride, stopped going to Helen, and Natasha "seemed still in love with Boris." In any situation, she is extremely sincere and natural, there is not a shadow of pretense, hypocrisy and coquetry in her. In Natasha, according to Tolstoy, "an inner fire was constantly burning and the reflections of this fire told her appearance something better than beauty." It is no coincidence that Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov love Natasha, it is no coincidence that Vasily Denisov falls in love with her. The development of these qualities of the heroine is facilitated by the atmosphere of the Rostovs' house, full of love, respect, patience and mutual understanding.
A different atmosphere reigns in the Bolkonsky estate. The upbringing of Princess Marya was carried out by her father, a proud and self-satisfied man with a difficult character. It is worth remembering the lessons of mathematics, which he not only taught, but tormented his daughter. Princess Mary inherited his secrecy, restraint in expressing his own feelings and innate nobility. The old Prince Bolkonsky is despotic and strict with his daughter, but in his own way he loves her and wishes her well. The image of Princess Marya is particularly attractive. The author constantly reminds of her ugly face, but the reader completely forgets about it at those moments when the best part of her spiritual being is revealed. In the portrait of Marya Bolkonskaya, extremely laconic, her radiant eyes are remembered, which made the ugly face of the princess beautiful in moments of strong spiritual uplift.
Marya Bolkonskaya is the owner of a lively mind. A significant contribution to the development of her mental abilities was made by her father, who attached great importance to education. Natasha Rostova has a slightly different mindset. She does not reflect on events in the same way as Marya, seriously and deeply, but with her heart and soul she understands what is not given to understand by another person. To the question about intellectual abilities Natasha Rostova perfectly answers Pierre: she "does not deign to be smart", because she is much taller and more complicated concepts mind and stupidity. Natasha differs from the searching, intelligent and educated heroes in that she perceives life without analyzing it, but cognizes it holistically and figuratively, like an artistically gifted person. She dances superbly, evoking the delight of those around her, as the plastic language of dance helps her express her overflowing with life, the joy of merging with it. Natasha has a beautiful voice that captivates the audience not only with its beauty, sonority, but also with the strength, sincerity of the feeling with which she gives herself to singing. When Natasha sings, for her the whole world is in sounds. But if this impulse is interrupted by someone else's intrusion, for Natasha this is blasphemy, a shock. For example, after an enthusiastic younger brother ran into the room during her singing with the news of the arrival of the mummers, Natasha burst into tears and could not stop for a long time.
One of the main character traits of Natasha is amorousness. At her first adult ball in her life, when she entered the hall, she felt in love with everyone. It cannot be otherwise, because love is the essence of her life. But this concept in Tolstoy has a very broad meaning. It includes not only love for the groom or husband, but also love for parents, family, art, nature, homeland, and life itself. Natasha keenly feels the beauty and harmony of nature. The charm of the moonlit night evokes in her a feeling of delight that literally overwhelms her: “Oh, what a charm! Wake up, Sonya, - she said almost with tears in her voice. “After all, there has never, never been such a lovely night.”
In contrast to the emotional and lively Natasha, in the meek Princess Mary, humility and restraint are combined with a thirst for simple human happiness. Not being able to know the joys of life, Marya finds joy and consolation in religion and fellowship with God's people. She meekly submits to her eccentric and despotic father, not only out of fear, but also out of a sense of duty as a daughter who does not have the moral right to judge her father. At first glance, she seems timid and downtrodden. But in her character there is hereditary Bolkon pride, an innate sense of self-worth, which manifests itself, for example, in her refusal of Anatole Kuragin's proposal. Despite the desire for quiet family happiness, which this ugly girl is deeply fraught with, she does not want to become the wife of a handsome secular man at the cost of humiliation and insult to her dignity.
Natasha Rostova is a passionate, impulsive person who cannot hide her feelings and experiences. Having fallen in love with Andrei Bolkonsky, she could not think of anything else. Separation becomes an unbearable test for her, because she lives every moment and cannot postpone happiness for some fixed period. This quality of Natasha's character pushes her to betrayal, which in turn gives rise to a deep sense of guilt and remorse in her. She judges herself too harshly, refusing joys and pleasures, because she considers herself unworthy of happiness.
Natasha is brought out of a state of painful crisis by the news of the threat of the French, who have approached Moscow. The common misfortune for the whole country makes the heroine forget about her sufferings and sorrows. As for other positive characters of the novel, for Natasha the main idea is to save Russia. In these difficult days, her love for people becomes especially strong, her desire to do everything possible to help them. This selfless love of Natasha finds its highest expression in motherhood.
But, despite the outward difference, the dissimilarity of the characters Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya have a lot in common. Both Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha are endowed by the author with a rich spiritual world, inner beauty, which Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky loved so much in Natasha and which Nikolai Rostov admires in his wife. Natasha and Marya give themselves to each of their feelings to the end, whether it be joy or sadness. Their spiritual impulses are often selfless and noble. They both think more about others, loved ones and loved ones than about themselves. For Princess Marya, all her life God remained the ideal to which her soul aspired. But Natasha, especially in difficult periods of her life (for example, after the story with Anatole Kuragin), gave herself up to a feeling of admiration for the Almighty. Both of them wanted moral purity, spiritual life, where there would be no place for resentment, anger, envy, injustice, where everything would be sublime and beautiful.
With all the dissimilarity of characters, Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova are patriots, pure and honest natures, capable of deep and strong feelings. The best features of Tolstoy's favorite heroines were especially pronounced in 1812. Natasha took to heart the disaster that befell Russia with the advent of Napoleon. She committed a truly patriotic act, forcing them to dump property from the carts and give these carts to the wounded. Count Rostov, proud of his daughter, said: "Eggs ... eggs teach a chicken." With selfless love and courage, impressing those around her, Natasha looked after Prince Andrei until the last day. The hardness of character of the modest and shy Princess Marya manifested itself with particular force these days. The French companion suggested that Princess Bolkonskaya, who found herself in a difficult situation, turn to the French for help. Princess Marya considered this proposal an insult to her patriotic feelings, stopped communicating with Mademoiselle Bourienne and left the Bogucharovo estate.
The human essence of Tolstoy's heroines is defined by the word "femininity". This is Natasha's charm, tenderness, passion, and beautiful, filled with some kind of inner light, radiant eyes of Marya Bolkonskaya. Both beloved heroines of Tolstoy find their happiness in the family, caring for her husband and children. But the writer takes them through serious trials, upheavals and mental crises. When they first met (when Natasha was the bride of Prince Andrei), they did not understand each other. But having passed the difficult path of disappointment and resentment, Princess Marya and Natasha became related not only in blood, but also in spirit. Fate accidentally brought them together, but both of them realized that they were close to each other, and therefore they became not just true friends, but spiritual allies with their enduring desire to do good and give others light, beauty and love.
The family life of Marya and Natasha is an ideal marriage, a strong family bond. Both heroines devote themselves to their husbands and children, giving all their spiritual and physical forces raising children and creating home comfort. Both Natasha (now Bezukhova) and Marya (Rostova) are happy in family life, happy with the happiness of their children and beloved husbands. Tolstoy emphasizes the beauty of his heroines in a new quality for them - a loving wife and tender mother. Natasha Rostova in the finale of the novel is no longer a charming, thin and agile girl, but a mature one Strong woman, loving wife and mother. With all her being, she is given to the care of her husband and children. All life is focused for her in the health of children, their feeding, growth, education. Their relationship with Pierre is surprisingly harmonious and pure. Natasha's spontaneity and heightened intuition perfectly complement Pierre's intelligent, searching, analyzing nature. Tolstoy writes that Natasha is not particularly versed in political activity husband, but she feels and knows the main thing - her good, fair basis. Another happy union- this is the family of Marya Bolkonskaya and Nikolai Rostov. The selfless tender love of Princess Mary for her husband and children creates an atmosphere of spirituality in the family, ennobles Nicholas, who feels the high morality of the world in which his wife lives.
Natasha Rostova and Marya Bolkonskaya are contrasted in Helen Kuragina's novel. Behind the external brilliance of this heroine lies an evil and immoral creature. In front of readers, Helen consistently commits several betrayals. Like all members of the Kuragin family, she lives by the immutable law of the fulfillment of personal desires and does not recognize any moral standards. Helen marries Pierre only for the purpose of enrichment. She openly cheats on her husband, not seeing anything shameful and unnatural in this. She does not want to have children, because the family means nothing to her. The consequence of her intrigues in the world is death. The author sees no future for this heroine.
Helen's coldness and selfishness are contrasted with Natasha's naturalness and changeability. Helen, unlike Natasha, is not able to feel guilty, to condemn herself. In the image of Helen, external beauty and internal emptiness were embodied. More than once in the novel we see her “monotonous”, “unchanging smile”, more than once the author will draw our attention to the “ancient beauty of her body”. But not a word is said about Helen's eyes in the novel, although it is known that they are the mirror of the soul. But Tolstoy writes about the eyes of his beloved heroines with great love: Princess Marya has them “big, deep”, “always sad”, “more attractive than beauty”. Natasha's eyes are "lively", "beautiful", "laughing", "attentive", "kind". Both Natasha and Marya's eyes are a reflection of their inner world.
The epilogue of the novel reflects the writer's idea of the true purpose of a woman. According to Tolstoy, it is inextricably linked with the family, with the care of children. Women who find themselves outside this sphere either turn into a void, or, like Helen Kuragina, become carriers of evil. L.N. Tolstoy does not idealize family life, but shows that it is in the family that all eternal values are contained for people, without which life loses its meaning. The writer sees the highest vocation and purpose of a woman in motherhood, in the upbringing of children, for it is the woman who is the guardian of family foundations, that bright and kind beginning that leads the world to harmony and beauty.
Plan: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Medium comprehensive school s/p “Pivan Village”
abstract
Female images of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace".
Completed by: Rubashova Olya
Checked:_______________
2008
1. Introduction
2. Natasha Rostova
3. Maria Bolkonskaya.
4. Conclusion
Introduction
Can not imagine world literature without the image of a woman. Even without being the main character of the work, she brings some special character to the story. Since the beginning of the world, men have admired the beautiful half of humanity, idolize them and worship them. A woman is always surrounded by a halo of mystery, mystery. The actions of a woman lead to confusion and bewilderment. To delve into the psychology of a woman, to understand her is the same as solving one of the most ancient mysteries of the Universe.
Russian writers always give women a special place in their works. Everyone, of course, sees her in his own way, but for everyone she will forever remain a support and hope, an object of admiration. Turgenev sang the image of a woman who is persistent, honest, capable of any sacrifice for the sake of love. Chernyshevsky, being a democratic revolutionary, advocated the equality of men and women, valued intelligence in a woman, saw and respected a person in her. Tolstoy's ideal is natural life - this is life in all its manifestations, with all the natural feelings inherent in man - love, hatred, friendship. And of course, such an ideal for Tolstoy is Natasha Rostova. She is natural, and this naturalness is contained in her from birth.
Many writers transferred the character traits of their beloved women to the images of the heroines of their works. I think that is why the image of a woman in Russian literature is so striking in its brightness, originality, strength. emotional experiences.
Beloved women have always served as a source of inspiration for men. Everyone has their own female ideal, but at all times the representatives of the stronger sex admired female devotion, the ability to sacrifice, and patience. A true woman will forever remain inextricably linked with her family, children, and home. And men will not cease to be surprised at women's whims, look for explanations for women's actions, fight for women's love!
Natasha Rostova
Tolstoy showed his ideal in the image of Natasha Rostova. For him, she was the real woman.
Throughout the novel, we follow how a little playful girl becomes a real woman, mother, loving wife, homemaker.
From the very beginning, Tolstoy emphasizes that there is not an ounce of falsehood in Natasha, she feels unnaturalness and lies more acutely than anyone. With her appearance at the name day in a living room full of official ladies, she breaks this atmosphere of pretense. All her actions are subject to feelings, not reason. She even sees people in her own way: Boris is black, narrow, like a mantel clock, and Pierre is quadrangular, red-brown. For her, these characteristics are enough to understand who is who.
Natasha is referred to as "living life" in the novel. She inspires those around her with her energy. With support and understanding, the heroine practically saves her mother after the death of Petrusha. Prince Andrei, who managed to say goodbye to all the joys of life, when he saw Natasha, felt that not everything was lost for him. And after the betrothal, the whole world for Andrey seemed to be divided into two parts: one is where Natasha is, where everything is light, the other is everything else, where there is only darkness.
Natasha can be forgiven for being infatuated with Kuragin. This was the only time her intuition failed her! All her actions are subject to momentary impulses, which cannot always be explained. She did not understand Andrei's desire to postpone the wedding for a year. Natasha strove to live every second, and a year for her was equal to eternity. Tolstoy endows his heroine with all best qualities, moreover, she rarely evaluates her actions, most often relying on her inner moral sense.
Like all his favorite characters, the author sees Natasha Rostova as part of the people. He emphasizes this in the scene at his uncle's, when "the countess, brought up by a French emigrant," danced no worse than Agafya. This feeling of unity with the people, as well as true patriotism, push Natasha to give all the carts for the wounded when leaving Moscow, to leave almost all things in the city.
Even the highly spiritual Princess Marya, who at first did not love the "pagan" Natasha, understood her and accepted her for who she is. Natasha Rostova was not very smart, and this was not important for Tolstoy. “Now, when he (Pierre) told all this to Natasha, he experienced that rare pleasure that women give when listening to a man - not smart women who, listening, try to remember what they are told, in order to enrich their mind and, on occasion, to retell the same ... but the pleasure that real women give, gifted with the ability to choose and suck into themselves all the best that is only in the manifestations of a man.
Natasha realized herself as a wife, mother. Tolstoy emphasizes that she brought up all her children herself (an impossible thing for a noblewoman), but for the author this is absolutely natural. Her family happiness came and was felt by her after experiencing several small and large love dramas. I do not want to say that the author needed all Natasha's hobbies only so that after them the heroine could experience all the delights of family life. They also have another artistic function - they serve the purpose of describing the character of the heroine, showing her inner world, age-related changes, etc. Tolstoy distinguishes between her early hobbies and later, more serious ones. The transition from childhood love to true love the heroine herself notices. She talks about this when she fell in love with Andrei Bolkonsky: “I was in love with Boris, with a teacher, with Denisov, but this is not at all the same. I am calm, firm. I know that there are no people better than him, and so I feel calm, good now, not at all like before. And before, it turns out, she did not give of great importance to her affections, without reproach she confessed to herself in her own frivolity. Recall how she opposed herself to Sonya: “She will love someone, so forever, but I don’t understand this, I’ll forget now.” According to the confession of fifteen-year-old Natasha, then she did not want to get married for anything and was going to tell Boris about it at the first meeting with him, although she considered him her fiancé. However, the change of attachments does not indicate Natasha's inconstancy and infidelity. Everything is explained by her exceptional cheerfulness, which gives the young heroine a sweet charm. Beloved by everyone, a "sorceress" - in the words of Vasily Denisov, Natasha fascinated people not only with her external beauty, but with her spiritual warehouse. Her face was not particularly attractive; even the flaws in it are distinguished by the author, which became more noticeable when she cried. “And Natasha, opening her big mouth and becoming completely different, roared like a child.” But she always remained beautiful when her girlish appearance was illuminated by an inner light. Tolstoy, by all poetic means, tries to convey her feeling of the joy of being. She experiences the happiness of living, inquisitively peering into the world, which more and more surprises and pleases her. Maybe this comes from the fact that she feels in herself all the data to be loved and happy. The girl felt early that the world had a lot of interesting and promising things for her. After all, Tolstoy says that the moments of experiencing a feeling of joy were for her "a state of self-love."
With her cheerfulness, she surprised Andrei Bolkonsky: “What is she thinking about? Why is she so happy?" Natasha herself cherished her joyful mood. She had a special account of an old dress, which made her cheerful in the morning. Thirst for new impressions, playfulness, a sense of delight, in particular, manifested themselves in Natasha when she met her brother Nikolai and Vasily Denisov, who came to the Rostovs on a visit. She "jumped like a goat all in one place and squealed piercingly." She had everything the highest degree interesting and funny.
One of the sources of joy was for her the first feelings of love. She loved everything that seemed good to her. The attitude of Natasha the girl towards her beloved person can be judged by how her well-being is shown by Yogel. “She was not in love with anyone in particular, but she was in love with everyone. The one she looked at, the minute she looked, that she was in love with." As you can see, the love theme does not acquire independent meaning in the novel, serving only to reveal the spiritual image of the heroine. Another thing is love for Andrei, Anatole Kuragin, Pierre: it is somehow connected with the problems of family and marriage. I have already talked about this in part and will continue to talk ahead. It should only be noted here that in the scandalous story with Anatole Kuragin, which cost Natasha difficult experiences, the view of a woman only as an instrument of pleasure is condemned.
Maria Bolkonskaya
Another female image that attracted my attention in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is Princess Marya. This heroine is so beautiful internally that her appearance does not matter. Her eyes radiate such a light that her face loses its ugliness.
Marya sincerely believes in God, she believes that only He has the right to forgive and have mercy. She scolds herself for unkind thoughts, for disobedience to her father, and tries to see only the good in others. She is proud and grateful, like her brother, but her pride does not offend, because kindness, an integral part of her nature, softens this sometimes unpleasant feeling to others.
In my opinion, the image of Marya Bolkonskaya is the image of a guardian angel. She protects everyone for whom she feels even the slightest responsibility. Tolstoy believes that such a person as Princess Mary deserves much more than an alliance with Anatole Kuragin, who did not understand what treasure he had lost; however, he had very different moral values.
She lives in the naive worldview of the church legend, which causes the critical attitude of Prince Andrei and does not coincide with the views of Pierre Bezukhy and Tolstoy himself. At the time of the best state of his health and spirit, that is, before the crisis near death, Prince Andrei did not take Mary's religious teachings seriously. Only out of condescension to his sister does he consider her religiosity. Accepting the cross from her on the day of departure for the army, Andrei jokingly remarks: “If he doesn’t pull his neck down by two pounds, then I’ll make you happy.” In his heavy thoughts on the Borodino field, Andrei doubts the dogmas of the church professed by Princess Mary, feeling their unconvincing. “Father also built in the Bald Mountains and thought that this was his place, his land, his air, his men, and Napoleon came and, not knowing about his existence, like a puppy out of the way, pushed him and his Bald Mountains fell apart, and all his life. And Princess Marya says that this is a test sent from above. What is the test for, when it is not and will not be? Never again! He is not! So who are these tests? As for the attitude towards the heroine of Tolstoy himself, here the very mood of the image of Mary should be taken into account, which puts her mysticism in connection with the difficult circumstances of her personal life, which in turn gives a special psychological depth to the typification of this character. The novel hints at the reasons for Marya's religiosity. The heroine could become so because of the heavy mental anguish that fell to her lot and inspired her with the idea of suffering and self-sacrifice. Marya was ugly, experienced it and suffered. Because of her appearance, she had to endure humiliation, the most terrible and insulting of them was the one she experienced during the courtship of Anatole Kuragin to her, when the groom arranged a meeting with her companion Bourien at night.
War and Peace is one of those books that cannot be forgotten. In its very name - all human life. And also “War and Peace” is a model of the structure of the world, the universe, and therefore appears in the IV part of the novel (Pierre Bezukhov's dream) the symbol of this world - a globe - a ball. "This globe was a living, oscillating ball, without dimensions." Its entire surface consisted of drops tightly compressed together. The drops moved, moved, now merging, now separating. Each strove to spread, to capture the largest space, but others, shrinking, sometimes destroyed each other, sometimes merged into one. “Here is life,” said the old teacher, who once taught Pierre geography. “How simple and clear it all is,” thought Pierre, “how I could not know this before.”
“How simple and clear it all is,” we repeat, rereading our favorite pages of the novel. And these pages, like drops on the surface of the globe, connecting with others, form part of a single whole. Thus, episode after episode, we move towards the infinite and eternal, which is the life of man. But the writer Tolstoy would not have been a philosopher Tolstoy if he had not shown us the polar sides of being: life, in which form prevails, and life, which contains the fullness of content. It is from these Tolstoy ideas about life that we will consider female images in which the author highlights their special purpose - to be a wife and mother.
For Tolstoy, the world of the family is the basis human society where women play the unifying role. If a man is characterized by an intense intellectual and spiritual search, then a woman, having a more subtle intuition, lives with feelings and emotions.
The clear opposition of good and evil in the novel was naturally reflected in the system of female images. Contrasting internal and external images as a writer's favorite technique is indicative of such heroines as Helen Kuragina, Natasha Rostova and Marya Bolkonskaya.
Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal emptiness, a fossil. Tolstoy constantly mentions her "monotonous", "unchanging" smile and "ancient beauty of the body", she resembles a beautiful soulless statue. Helene Scherer enters the salon “noisily with her sickly white robe, trimmed with ivy and moss,” as a symbol of soullessness and coldness. It is not for nothing that the author does not mention her eyes, while the “brilliant”, “shining” eyes of Natasha and the “radiant” eyes of Marya always attract our attention.
Helen personifies immorality and depravity. The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not know any moral standards, living by the inexorable law of the fulfillment of their insignificant desires. Helen only marries for her own enrichment. She constantly cheats on her husband, because the animal nature prevails in her nature. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless. "I'm not such a fool as to have children," she utters blasphemous words. Helen, in front of the whole society, is busy arranging her personal life while still being Pierre's wife, and her mysterious death is due to the fact that she got entangled in her own intrigues.
Such is Helen Kuragina with her dismissive attitude to the sacrament of marriage, to the duties of a wife. It is not difficult to guess that Tolstoy embodied in her the worst feminine qualities and contrasted her with the images of Natasha and Marya.
It is impossible not to say about Sonya. The peaks of Marya's spiritual life and Natasha's "peaks of feeling" are inaccessible to her. She is too mundane, too immersed in everyday life. She is also given joyful moments of life, but these are only moments. Sonya cannot compare with Tolstoy's favorite heroines, but this is more her misfortune than her fault, the author tells us. She is an "empty flower", but, perhaps, the life of a poor relative, the feeling of constant dependence did not allow her to blossom in her soul.
One of the main characters in the novel is Natasha Rostova. Tolstoy draws Natasha in development, he traces Natasha's life in different years, and, naturally, her feelings, her perception of life change over the years.
We first meet Natasha when this little thirteen-year-old girl, "black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive," runs out into the living room and runs into her mother. And with her image, the theme of “living life” enters the novel. Tolstoy always appreciated in Natasha precisely the fullness of life, the desire to live interestingly, fully and, most importantly, every minute. Overwhelmed with optimism, she strives to be in time everywhere: to console Sonya, to declare her love for Boris in a childishly naive way, to argue about the type of ice cream, to sing the romance “Key” with Nikolai, to dance with Pierre. Tolstoy writes that "the essence of her life is love." It combined the most valuable qualities of a person: love, poetry, life. Of course, we do not believe her when she "in all seriousness" says to Boris: "Forever ... Until death." And, taking him by the arm, she quietly walked beside him into the sofa with a happy face.
All Natasha's actions are determined by the requirements of her nature, and not by a rational choice, therefore she is not just a participant in a certain private life, for she does not belong to one family circle, but to the world of a general movement. And perhaps this was also what Tolstoy had in mind when speaking about the historical characters of the novel: “Only one unconscious activity bears fruit, and the person who plays a role in historical event never understands its meaning. If he tries to understand it, he is amazed at the barrenness." She, not trying to understand his role, thereby already defines it for herself and for others. “The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one is she, and everything is there - happiness, hope, light; the other half is everything where it is not, there is all despondency and darkness, ”says Prince Andrei four years later. But while she is sitting at the birthday table, she looks at Boris with a childishly loving look. “The same look of her sometimes turned to Pierre, and under the look of this funny, lively girl he wanted to laugh, not knowing what.” This is how Natasha reveals herself in an unconscious movement, and we see her naturalness, that quality that will be an invariable property of her life.
The first ball of Natasha Rostova became the place of her meeting with Andrei Bolkonsky, which led to a clash of their life positions, which had a huge impact on both of them.
During the ball, she is not interested in either the sovereign or all the important persons pointed out by Peronskaya, she does not pay attention to court intrigues. She is waiting for joy and happiness. Tolstoy unequivocally singles her out among all those present at the ball, opposing her to secular society. Enthusiastic, fading with excitement, Natasha is described by L. Tolstoy with love and tenderness. His ironic remarks about the adjutant-manager asking everyone to move aside “somewhere else”, about “some lady”, about the vulgar fuss around the rich bride, make the light petty and false, while Natasha among all of them is shown as the only natural being. Tolstoy contrasts the lively, ebullient, always unexpected Natasha with the cold Helen, a secular woman who lives according to established rules, never commits rash acts. “Natasha's bare necks and arms were thin and ugly compared to Helen's shoulders. Her shoulders were thin, her chest indefinite, her arms thin; but on Helen it was already like varnish from all the thousands of glances that glided over her body, ”and this makes it seem vulgar. This impression is intensified when we remember that Helen is soulless and empty, that in her body, as if carved from marble, lives a stone soul, greedy, without a single movement of feeling. Here, Tolstoy's attitude to secular society is revealed, Natasha's exclusivity is once again emphasized.
What did the meeting with Andrei Bolkonsky give Natasha? As a truly natural being, although she did not think about it, she aspired to create a family and could find happiness only in the family. The meeting with Prince Andrei and his proposal created the conditions for achieving her ideal. Preparing to form a family, she was happy. However, happiness was not destined to last long. Prince Andrei strove for Natasha, but did not understand her, he did not have a natural instinct, so he postponed the wedding, not realizing that Natasha should love all the time, that she should be happy every minute. He himself provoked her betrayal.
The portrait characteristic makes it possible to expose the main qualities of her character. Natasha is cheerful, natural, spontaneous. The older she gets, the faster she turns from a girl into a girl, the more she wants to be admired, to be loved, to be in the spotlight. Natasha loves herself and believes that everyone should love her, she says about herself: "What a charm this Natasha is." And everyone really admires her, loves her. Natasha is like a ray of light in a boring and gray secular society.
Emphasizing the ugliness of Natasha, Tolstoy argues: it's not about external beauty. The riches of her inner nature are important: giftedness, the ability to understand, to come to the rescue, sensitivity, subtle intuition. Everyone loves Natasha, everyone wishes her well, because Natasha herself does only good to everyone. Natasha lives not with her mind, but with her heart. The heart rarely deceives. And although Pierre says that Natasha “does not deign to be smart,” she has always been smart and understood people. When Nikolenka, having lost almost the entire fortune of the Rostovs, comes home, Natasha, without realizing it, sings only for her brother. And Nikolai, listening to her voice, forgets about everything about his loss, about the difficult conversation with his father that is coming to him, he only listens to the wonderful sound of her voice and thinks: “What is this? .. What happened to her? How does she sing today? .. Well, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother." And not only Nikolai is enchanted by her voice. After all, Natasha's voice possessed extraordinary virtues. “In her voice there was that virginity, untouchedness, that ignorance of one’s own strengths and that still undeveloped velvety, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed that nothing could be changed in this voice without spoiling it.”
Natasha understands Denisov very well, who proposed to her. She desires him and understands that "he did not want to say, but he accidentally said it." Natasha has an art that is not given to everyone. She knows how to be compassionate. When Sonya roared, Natasha, not knowing the reason for her friend's tears, "spreading her big mouth and becoming completely ugly, roared like a child ... and only because Sonya was crying." Natasha's sensitivity and subtle intuition "didn't work" only once. Natasha, so smart and insightful, did not understand Anatole Kuragin and Helen and paid dearly for the mistake.
Natasha is the embodiment of love, love is the essence of her character.
Natasha is a patriot. Without hesitation, she gives all the carts for the wounded, leaving things, and does not imagine that it is possible to do otherwise in this situation.
Natasha is close to the Russian people. She loves folk songs, traditions, music. From all this we can conclude that the ardent, lively, loving, patriotic Natasha is capable of a feat. Tolstoy gives us to understand that Natasha will follow the Decembrist Pierre to Siberia. Isn't that a feat?
We meet with Princess Marya Bolkonskaya from the first pages of the novel. Ugly and rich. Yes, she was ugly, and even very bad-looking, but this is in the opinion of outsiders, distant people who hardly know her. All those few who loved her and were loved by her knew and caught her beautiful and radiant look on themselves. Princess Mary herself did not know all his charms and strength. This look by itself illuminated everything around with the light of warm love and tenderness. Prince Andrei often caught this look on himself, Julie recalled in her letters the meek, calm look of Princess Marya, so, according to Julie, that she lacked, and Nikolai Rostov fell in love with the princess precisely for this look. But at the thought of herself, the sparkle in Marya's eyes dimmed, went somewhere deep into the soul. Her eyes became the same: sad and, most importantly, frightened, making her ugly, sickly face even uglier.
Marya Bolkonskaya, the daughter of General-in-Chief Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, lived without a break in the Bald Mountains estate. She had no friends or girlfriends. Only Julie Karagina wrote to her, thus bringing joy and variety to the gray, monotonous life of the princess. The father himself was engaged in raising his daughter: he gave her lessons in algebra and geometry. But what did these lessons give her? How could she understand anything, feeling the gaze and breath of her father above her, whom she feared and loved more than anything in the world. The princess respected him and revered him and everything he had done with his hands. The main consolation and, perhaps, the teacher was religion: in prayer she found both comfort, and help, and the solution to all problems. All complex laws human activity concentrated for Princess Marya in one simple rule- A lesson in love and self-affirmation. She lives like this: she loves her father, brother, daughter-in-law, her companion, the Frenchwoman Mademoiselle Bourienne. But sometimes Princess Mary catches herself thinking about earthly love, about earthly passion. The princess is afraid of these thoughts like fire, but they arise, arise because she is a person and, be that as it may, a sinful person, like everyone else.
And so Prince Vasily and his son Anatole come to Bald Mountains to woo. Probably, in secret thoughts, Princess Marya had long been waiting for just such a future husband: handsome, noble, kind.
The old prince Bolkonsky invites his daughter to decide her own fate. And she probably would fatal mistake, agreeing to the marriage, if she had not accidentally seen Anatole hugging Mademoiselle Bourienne. Princess Mary refuses Anatole Kuragin, refuses, because she decides to live only for her father and her nephew.
The princess does not perceive Natasha Rostova when she and her father come to meet the Bolkonskys. She treats Natasha with some internal hostility. She probably loves her brother too much, values his freedom, is afraid that some completely sensitive woman can take him away, take him away, win his love. And the terrible word "stepmother"? This alone inspires dislike and disgust.
Princess Mary in Moscow asks Pierre Bezukhov about Natasha Rostova. "Who is this girl and how do you find her?" She asks to tell "the whole truth." Pierre feels "Princess Marya's ill will towards her future daughter-in-law." She really wants that "Pierre did not approve of the choice of Prince Andrei."
Pierre does not know how to answer this question. “I definitely don’t know what kind of girl this is, I can’t analyze her in any way. She is charming,” says Pierre.
But this answer did not satisfy Princess Mary.
“Is she smart? - asked the princess.
Pierre considered.
I think not, he said, but yes. She does not deign to be smart.”
“Princess Mary again shook her head disapprovingly,” notes Tolstoy.
All Tolstoy's characters fall in love. Princess Marya Bolkonskaya falls in love with Nikolai Rostov. Having fallen in love with Rostov, the princess during the meeting with him is transformed in such a way that Mademoiselle Bourrienne almost does not recognize her: “chest, feminine notes” appear in her voice, grace and dignity appear in her movements. “For the first time, all that pure spiritual inner work that she had lived until now came out” and made the face of the heroine beautiful. Caught in a difficult situation, she accidentally meets Nikolai Rostov, and he helps her cope with the intractable peasants and leave the Bald Mountains. Princess Mary loves Nikolai in a completely different way than Sonya loved him, who had to constantly do something and sacrifice something. And not like Natasha, who needed the beloved person to be just there, smiling, rejoicing and saying loving words to her. Princess Mary loves quietly, calmly, happily. And this happiness is increased by the realization that she finally fell in love, and fell in love with a kind, noble, honest person.
And Nicholas sees and understands all this. Fate more and more often pushes them to each other. A meeting in Voronezh, an unexpected letter from Sonya, releasing Nikolai from all obligations and promises made by Sonya: what is this if not a decree of fate?
In the autumn of 1814, Nikolai Rostov marries Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. Now she has what she dreamed of: a family, a beloved husband, children.
But Princess Marya did not change: she was still the same, only now it was Countess Marya Rostova. She tried to understand Nikolai in everything, she wanted, really wanted to love Sonya and could not. She loved her children very much. And she was very upset when she realized that something was missing in her feelings for her nephew. She still lived for others, trying to love them all with the highest, Divine love. Sometimes Nicholas, looking at his wife, was horrified at the thought of what would have happened to him and his children if Countess Mary had died. He loved her more than life, and they were happy.
Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova become wonderful wives. Not everything is available to Natasha in Pierre's intellectual life, but with her soul she understands his actions, seeks to help her husband in everything. Princess Mary captivates Nicholas with spiritual wealth, which is not given to his uncomplicated nature. Under the influence of his wife, his unbridled temper softens, for the first time he realizes his rudeness towards the peasants. The harmony of family life, as we see, is achieved where the husband and wife, as it were, complement and enrich each other, making up a single whole. In the Rostov and Bezukhov families, mutual misunderstanding and inevitable conflicts are resolved by reconciliation. Love reigns here.
Marya and Natasha are wonderful mothers. However, Natasha is more concerned about the health of children, and Marya penetrates into the character of the child, takes care of his spiritual and moral education.
Tolstoy endows the heroines with the most valuable, in his opinion, qualities - the ability to subtly feel the mood of loved ones, share someone else's grief, selflessly love their family.
Highly important quality Natasha and Marya - naturalness, artlessness. They are not able to play a predetermined role, they do not depend on the opinions of strangers, they do not live according to the laws of the world. At her first big ball, Natasha stands out precisely for her sincerity in expressing feelings. Princess Mary, at the decisive moment of her relationship with Nikolai Rostov, forgets that she wanted to be aloof and polite, and their conversation goes beyond secular conversation: "the distant, the impossible suddenly became close, possible and inevitable."
With the similarity of the best moral qualities, Natasha and Marya, in essence, are completely different, almost opposite natures. Natasha lives avidly, catches every moment, she lacks words to express the fullness of her feelings, the heroine enjoys dancing, hunting, singing. She is highly endowed with love for people, openness of soul, talent for communication.
Marya also lives in love, but there is a lot of meekness, humility, selflessness in her. She often rushes in her thoughts from earthly life to other spheres. “The soul of Countess Marya,” writes Tolstoy in the epilogue, “strives to the infinite, eternal and perfect, and therefore could never be at peace.”
It was in Princess Marya that Leo Tolstoy saw the ideal of a woman, and most importantly, of a wife. Princess Mary does not live for herself: she wants to make and makes her husband and children happy. But she herself is happy, her happiness consists in love for her neighbors, their joy and well-being, which, by the way, should be the happiness of every woman.
Tolstoy solved the issue of a woman's place in society in his own way: a woman's place in the family. Natasha created a good, strong family, there is no doubt that good children will grow up in her family, who will become full-fledged and full-fledged members of society.
In Tolstoy's work, the world appears multifaceted, there is a place for the most diverse, sometimes opposite characters. The writer conveys to us his love for life, which is in all its beauty and fullness. And considering the female images of the novel, we are once again convinced of this.
“How simple and clear it all is,” we are once again convinced, turning our eyes to the globe ball, where there are no longer drops destroying each other, and they all merged together, making up one big and bright world, as at the very beginning - in the Rostovs’ house . And Natasha and Pierre, Nikolai and Princess Marya with the little Prince Bolkonsky remain in this world, and “it is necessary to take hand in hand as closely as possible and as many people as possible in order to resist the general catastrophe.
Literature
1. Newspaper "Literature" No. 41, p. 4, 1996
2. Newspaper "Literature" No. 12, pp. 2, 7, 11, 1999
3. Newspaper "Literature" No. 1, p. 4, 2002
4. E. G. Babaev "Leo Tolstoy and Russian journalism of his era."
5. "The best examination papers."
6. 380 best school essays.