Unified State Exam 2020. Literature. Essay in December. L.N. Tolstoy. "War and Peace". The modern sound of an epic novel.

  • Essays
  • On literature
  • Tolstoy Lev
  • Based on the novel War and Peace

The novel by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is an epic novel. The author follows the events taking place in Russia and Europe for 20 years. Using the example of individuals and entire families, he shows how their destinies are intertwined with the fate of Russia. It tells what the Russian people are capable of during the war.

To make everything look authentic, Tolstoy studied archives and diaries. I visited the Borodino field to feel the greatness of the feat of the Russian people, to imagine myself in the place of the soldiers.

Tolstoy writes many storylines and introduces a huge number of characters. Literary scholars set out to count how many there are. And they counted about 560 people. The work has no logical ending. This is understandable - after all, the life of a huge country and individuals continues.

Throughout the entire work, the author is invisibly present. He makes philosophical, lyrical, historical digressions so that the reader can delve as deeply as possible into the essence of what is happening. He evaluates battles and critically characterizes historical figures and military leaders.

Philosophical digressions of the main characters. Here Prince Andrei thinks about the oak tree, that it stood, stands and will stand. His reflections on the clouds running across the sky. The collective image of the Russian people, who, in the face of the danger of enslavement, rallied together, is powerfully depicted. Both the poor and the rich, shoulder to shoulder, stood in one row and created partisan detachments. And they gave Napoleon a worthy rebuff. I accompanied him all the way to Paris so that, God forbid, he would not get lost along the way. Moreover, they drove him along the same ruined road along which he came to Russia.

Tolstoy emphasizes in the novel that the outcome of any battle depends not only on the wisdom and combat experience of the commanders, but also on the unity and coordination of the actions of ordinary soldiers, partisans, and militias. When the entire Russian people rises to fight, the enemy has no chance of success.

Using the example of Prince Andrei, he describes how the fate of one depends on history. His dreams of glory were crushed at the Battle of Austerlitz. He sees his former idol Napoleon with completely different eyes. He understands that this little guy with ambitions for world domination is actually a simple killer who sends his compatriots to their deaths.

Tolstoy depicted a whole flower garden of female characters in the novel. My favorite among them is Natasha Rostova. He seems to be watching her from the side, tracing her development from a pupa to a beautiful butterfly. Doll, a thirteen-year-old fidget girl who looks like an ugly duckling. But she’s so sweet, spontaneous, and able to find joy in simple things. How her parents dance, how she herself dances in the scene after the hunt, the moon in the night sky. It was this spontaneity of hers that Prince Andrei liked.

In contrast to her, he describes the outwardly beautiful woman of St. Petersburg, Helen Kuragina, whom all the men were chasing. But inside there is a predatory, calculating female. Natasha is also loved by those around her, although she loses to Helen externally, but wins spiritually. It was she who consoled her mother when her brother Petenka was killed. She became support and hope for Pierre Bezukhov, who had not found his place in life. How much this marriage gave to both!

Pierre finally gained stability and meaning in his family. And Natasha blossomed and turned from a chrysalis into a butterfly. Family is the most important value in the life of any person, concludes Leo Tolstoy.

Essay 3

In the work, the author reveals very important topics, such as war and life in wartime, how relationships developed between people, friendship, love.

Perhaps the most important character in Tolstoy’s work is Bolkonsky. It is described at the very beginning of the novel. Andrey is a very purposeful person, constantly searching for the meaning of life. He always strived to achieve the ideal. He considered the girl Lisa to be his ideal match, so he married her. But a little later, Lisa became completely uninteresting to him and she did not attract his attention. He changed his attitude towards his wife, she became something ordinary for him.

The hero always thirsted for glory and therefore wanted to accomplish some feat that the whole world would talk about. Andrei enters the service and his previous image has changed enormously.

Later, he nevertheless realized his dream, he had a banner in his hands and he walked ahead in one of the battles. But this feat has already become simple and ordinary for Bolkonsky. He's already tired of everything. The hero did not fully understand what war was. He realized later, after being wounded, that war is a terrifying phenomenon. You don't want to die in war. Andrei began to value his life, he wildly wanted to survive after all this. Now he understood why he exists.

When Andrei met Natasha, he finally found happiness. He was very happy next to her. Love between Andrei and Natasha arose almost at first sight. Natasha turned out to be a very mysterious woman, and that’s what attracted him to her. He could not forget Natasha even from a distance. Natasha always wanted her beloved to be nearby. When Bolkonsky went to war, Anatol Kuragin appeared on the horizon, who confused the young girl, and she fell in love with him. The relationship between Natasha and Andrey collapsed, leaving behind pain and disappointment.

Later, fate nevertheless brought the two lovers together, but then their love ended tragically.

Bolkonsky throughout his life was in search of the meaning of life, he looked for it in secular society, in love, even in war. But when he finally achieved his goal, he was disappointed. He never appreciated the moments in life. And when I understood and realized everything, it was already too late.

It is Andrei Bolkonsky who helps the reader uncover questions about the meaning of life. The novel, with the help of this hero, teaches us to appreciate every moment in our lives. And you shouldn’t be disappointed after your defeats, because after them victory can come.

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Reasoning on the work War and Peace

Every book is wonderful in its own way if it teaches good things. If after reading, not only the memory of the plot remains, but also some impressions, then it can be called good. Some works are simply instructive stories, some help to change, and others influence the reader’s worldview. Such a book for me was the recently read novel by Leo Tolstoy, which bears the well-known title “War and Peace.” This work is an epic novel, that is, it examines the fate of several generations in several eras.

Initially, you need to pay attention to the title of the novel. What is war? This is evil, fear, horror, murder and death. What is peace? When pronouncing this word, completely different associations pop up in your head: goodness, courage, peace, light, beauty. That is, Tolstoy probably wanted to convey something to the attentive reader with this contrast in the title.

This work has a huge number of characters, each of which is very bright and well developed. Their destinies are also described in such a way that the reader involuntarily thinks about whether they deserve such a gift or punishment from fate?

After reading the novel, I wondered: what does it mean to be a good person? What about the bad ones? Who even has the right to call me bad or who can I call good? These questions are also raised by Leo Tolstoy in his work.

Personally, I mean by a good person one who does not lie to himself first and foremost, and also keeps his word. He is not arrogant, but behaves naturally. He loves his homeland and is ready to defend it when necessary. Such a person is not characterized by hypocrisy, deceit and, of course, cruelty.

Everyone should strive to become a kind person or at least a better version of themselves.

But who is an evil and bad person? Why can it be called that? It seems to me that the type of evil people are those who constantly lie to their loved ones and themselves, and are also afraid to tell the truth. Such people are cruel and cannot feel pity not only for people, but even for animals.

Essay on the topic “War and Peace”


“War and Peace” is an epic novel covering a huge layer of historical events that took place in Russia and Europe. The main theme of the novel is defined by Tolstoy as the historical fate of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812.

In 1867, Lev Nikolaevich completed work on his work, which was destined to become great in Russian literature. The author poetizes the simplicity and kindness of the people. Tolstoy sees in the people the source of morality necessary for the whole society. His society is shown as inconsistent with ethical and moral standards.

One of the main goals of War and Peace is to show how terrible such a thing as war is. Tolstoy defined the role of war “... as an event contrary to human reason and all human nature.” In his opinion, war is not a normal phenomenon in people’s lives, when “human beings” exterminate each other. The novel poses questions to the reader: “Is it really cramped for people to live in this beautiful world, under this immeasurable starry sky? Is it really possible that, amidst this charming nature, a feeling of malice, revenge or the passion of exterminating one’s own kind can be retained in a person’s soul?” And the reader must give himself the answer as he reads.

The question “peace or war?” always stood before humanity and it, not trying to answer it, chose the second. Tolstoy (an officer himself, a veteran of the Crimean Company) is trying to show the essence of the war between people, their inner experiences. Show the connection with what is happening at the front and in society, as well as the attitude of ordinary people and soldiers to the war.

Tolstoy shows and describes such historical figures as Emperor Napoleon of France and Emperor Alexander I of Russia. However, in the novel Emperor Alexander is relegated to the background by the writer. His main historical figures are Napoleon and Kutuzov. However, Tolstoy completely denied the “role of personality in history.” In his opinion, the role of individuals in history is insignificant. The invisible historical will consists of “billions of wills” and is expressed as the movement of huge human masses. That is, it is not individuals who lead the mass, but the mass of individuals. Here comes a certain fate of history, where everything is “predetermined by the eternal.”

When portraying historical figures (especially Napoleon), Tolstoy sometimes depicts them as actors in the theater. For example, on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon says: “The chess is set, the game will begin tomorrow.”

On the day of the battle, after the first cannon shots, the writer remarks: “The game has begun.” Tolstoy goes on to show that this “game” cost the lives of tens of thousands of people. This revealed the bloody nature of the wars. The author points out that Napoleon is in fact a superman, because he crossed the line of good and evil, an unprecedented line, paying for it with hundreds of thousands of lives. His (Napoleon’s) actions were “too opposite to goodness and truth, too far from everything human, and therefore he was forced to abandon truth and goodness and everything human.”

War is not a “game”, but a cruel necessity, thinks Prince Andrei Bolkonsky on the eve of the battle. Here, too, the fate of Bolkonsky’s hero, his doom to death, is shown. The feeling of death appears to him clearly and clearly. Another fate is Pierre Bezukhov, misunderstood and ridiculed by society, who feels the desire to witness a historical battle and bring at least some benefit. Pierre is not afraid of death; rather, it attracts him. “Fall on the battlefield” - this quality puts an equal sign between the heroes (Bolkonsky and Bezukhov), despite the contrast of characters.

In addition to war, Tolstoy examined human actions in normal (peaceful) situations and in war. The confrontation between good and evil permeates Tolstoy's entire novel, not only on the battlefields, but also between people in the rear. Like, for example, the conflict between Dolokhov and Bezukhov. Good, according to the writer, must create a counterbalance to evil, “if vicious people are connected with each other and constitute a force, then honest people need to do the same.”

He comes to the conclusion that society, out of boredom, engages in intrigue and gossip, that representatives of this society, when going to war, show their positive qualities in the name of duty and saving their homeland. And, perhaps, this is the only advantage of such a phenomenon as war.

Along with the article “Essay on the theme “War and Peace”” read:

Essay on the topic: Comparative characteristics of Napoleon and Kutuzov in the novel “War and Peace”

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Final essay. Direction "War and Peace"

Thematic area “War and Peace”

The concepts of “war” and “peace” belong to “eternal” categories; many works of literature show characters gravitating towards one of these poles or going through the path of moral rebirth; In addition, there are many works in literature that show the confrontation between enemy camps, which led to either victory or defeat.

Essay topics:

1.Which of the heroes of the epic novel “War and Peace” is close to you and why?

2. Human behavior in war: the view of L.N. Tolstoy on the nature of the feat.

3. Do you agree with the statement: “The battle is won by the one who is determined to win it”?

Working with a table.

Do you agree with the statement: “The battle is won by the one who is determined to win it”?

the one who decides to win wins

In my opinion, this statement is true. Firstly, the outcome of the battle depends on the mood of the opposing armies. If soldiers are obsessed with victory, they will win it at any cost. Secondly, the Patriotic War helps to unite the people and protect their land from the enemy. Thirdly, the outcome of a battle does not always depend on the will of the commanders-in-chief.

L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"

1.Introduction.

War... Battle... Man... What connects these concepts? Probably the soldiers’ desire to win. But is this always possible? What determines the success of the confrontation? Is it possible to agree with the statement: “The battle is won by the one who firmly decides to win it.” In my opinion, this statement is true. Firstly, the outcome of the battle depends on the mood of the opposing armies. If soldiers are obsessed with victory, they will win it at any cost. Secondly, the Patriotic War helps to unite the people and protect their land from the enemy. Thirdly, the outcome of a battle does not always depend on the will of the commanders-in-chief; the leading force is the people, and the outcome of the battle depends on their mood. Let’s try using the example of analyzing several episodes from the epic novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy to prove this thesis.

2. Main part
1. First argument.
(analysis of the episode “Battle of Austerlitz” or “Battle of Shengraben”) The writer narrates ……………………..

The author is trying to convince readers that……….…………………………

One cannot but attract attention to the episode in which……………..

It helps to understand the author’s position……..…………………………….

MICROOUTPUT!!! The episode shows that neither Kutuzov nor the Russian soldiers needed this war. Even Prince Andrei pursued selfish goals: to accomplish a feat and “become famous.” Unfortunately, many were not motivated by noble motives, which is why the battle was lost, because the Russian people were not interested in victory and firmly decided not to win.

2. Second argument.

The next argument is the episode “Battle of Borodino”.

The story begins with……..

In addition, the writer draws the readers’ attention to………..

Let's follow the relationship………..

MICRO-CONCLUSION!!!This scene indicates that the “club of the people’s war” has won. After all, “the whole world” fell on the enemy, and he was defeated. Prince Bolkonsky was right when he told Pierre on the eve of the battle that the Russians would win this war, because everyone would fight for Russian land so as not to give it to the French. And indeed, a great moral victory was won when the enemy, outnumbered, felt defeated and surrendered.

3. Conclusion.

War... Battle... What connects these concepts? Of course, the statement: “The battle is won by the one who is determined to win it.” Really, …………………………..

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