4.7
Average rating: 4.7
Total ratings received: 946.
4.7
Average rating: 4.7
Total ratings received: 946.
Unique in the history of world literature is Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy’s classic novel “War and Peace,” which tells about the life of Russian society during the era of the Napoleonic wars. The work has enjoyed constant success among readers and literary researchers around the world for many years. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the analysis of the novel, which will be useful for 10th grade students when writing an essay, preparing for a literature lesson and the Unified State Exam.
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Ilyina Galina Sergeevna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 36 years.
Brief Analysis
Year of writing : 1863–1869.
History of creation - Initially, Tolstoy planned to write a story about the Decembrist, who returned home with his family from many years of exile. However, in the course of work, the plan expanded significantly: new heroes appeared, and the time frame was pushed back. The result was an epic novel, which took Tolstoy almost 7 years to complete.
Theme – The central theme of the work is the historical fate of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812. The author also raised themes of love, family, life and death, debt, war.
Composition - The novel consists of 4 volumes and an epilogue, each volume corresponds to a certain time period. The composition of the novel is complex and multi-layered.
Genre – Epic novel.
Direction – Realism.
History of creation
In the 50s of the XIX century L.N. Tolstoy gets to work on a story about a Decembrist who returned with his family from exile in Siberia. This topic fascinated the writer so much that he began to penetrate deeper into the inner world of his hero, look for the motives of his actions, and understand how the character of the man who came to speak on Senate Square in 1825 was formed. As a result, it became necessary to describe the hero’s entire life, starting from early youth. So the time frame of the work was shifted half a century ago, and the plot began its countdown from 1805.
It is not surprising that such a deep dive into the life of the main character required expansion and a significant increase in the main and secondary characters.
“Three Pores” was one of the first titles of the work. According to Tolstoy, the first part, or time, described the life of the young Decembrists, the second - the Decembrist uprising, and the third - their amnesty and return home from many years of exile. Ultimately, Lev Nikolaevich decided to direct all his efforts to describe the first period, since even this period of time required enormous efforts from him. So, instead of a story, the writer created a monumental work, a historical and artistic epic.
The history of the creation of “War and Peace” was an example of not only painstaking work on the characters’ characters and their relationships, but also complete immersion in the history of Russia. Tolstoy carefully studied military documents, memoirs of participants and witnesses of the Napoleonic wars, and to describe the scene of the Battle of Borodino, he spent some time in Borodino, on the field of the former battle, personally collecting reliable information.
Throughout the work on the novel, Lev Nikolaevich was critical of the work done. In an effort to write a work worthy of attention, he created 15 different versions of the beginning of the novel.
Before publication, the author renamed his work. The meaning of the title “War and Peace” is that the author, using the example of different characters and different social strata of society, showed the attitude of people to the grandiose historical events taking place in the country and the world.
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The history of the novel
“War and Peace” is the famous epic novel by Russian writer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
The literary value of this novel surpasses all his other works. The writer worked on this novel for seven years. It is believed that the official start date for work on this large-scale book was September 1863. Initially, Tolstoy wanted to make the starting point of the novel 1856; later he decided to begin the story with the Decembrist uprising of 1825, but later he moved the date again, as he wanted to talk about the early years of his hero’s life, which coincided with the events of 1812. As a result, the narrative of the novel begins in 1805.
Note 1
The title of the novel also changed several times. The original name was “Three Pores”.
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The beginning of the epic was not easy for Tolstoy. He devoted the entire autumn and early winter of 1856 to the beginning of the work. 15 variants of the beginning of the novel have been preserved. Several times Tolstoy also wanted to abandon the idea of \u200b\u200bwriting such a large-scale work, explaining this by the fact that he could not convey his entire plan on the pages of text.
When Tolstoy worked on writing this novel, first of all he wondered what role man plays in the development of history. The main source was quite a few documentary materials about the events of 1812. For Tolstoy, a particular difficulty was that the characteristics of the main figures of that time, Alexander I and Napoleon, were not unambiguous, so Tolstoy decided not to reflect someone’s subjective assessment, but to reflect his own assessment of those events in the novel. The writer had to work with a huge number of historical documents; they helped him form his independent point of view.
In order to better understand the events of those times, he spent two days near the village of Borodino. It was extremely important for the writer to visit this particular place; he made sketches of this area at different times of the day. Having visited the site of the Borodino battle, the writer was able to feel the spirit of those events in a new way; this trip inspired him to further write the novel. The writer did a tremendous amount of work: the novel contained 5,200 pages of handwritten text.
Finished works on a similar topic
Course work Tolstoy L.N. “War and Peace”, brief analysis 430 ₽ Abstract Tolstoy L.N. “War and Peace”, brief analysis 250 ₽ Test work by Tolstoy L.N. “War and Peace”, brief analysis 230 ₽
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Subject
Among the many topics covered by the author in the novel, one of the most important is the historical fate of the entire Russian people during the hard times of war. Lev Nikolaevich always criticized any wars, since in the future they became the cause of serious social problems.
People, cut off from their usual activities and forced to kill their own kind, forever changed their worldview. As a result, the entire nation suffered enormous, irreparable moral damage.
Military actions became an excellent backdrop for the development of such an important topic as true and false patriotism. The War of 1812 was of great importance in uniting the entire nation in a common patriotic impulse - to expel the enemy from their land. Many representatives of the nobility and ordinary people agreed in this. All the heroes of the novel, in one way or another, passed the test of 1812 and received a moral assessment of their actions.
Lev Nikolaevich put all his aspirations and hopes into the main idea of the work - every person should live in the interests of his people, strive for true harmony, forgetting about the thirst for profit or career ambitions. Love for the homeland, good thoughts, unity with the common people - this is what the work teaches.
The meaning of the novel lies in “nationality,” since it is the people who are the driving force and greatness of the nation.
The meaning of the title of the novel "War and Peace"
This is an epic novel in the truest sense of the word. Spread over several decades, it masterfully describes the history of Russia from the late 18th century to the first third of the 1800s. At over 1,600 pages, this is by far one of the longest novels, but unlike many much shorter books, its length is well justified. Although Tolstoy is very meticulous, his writing is easy to read, and the pages simply fly when you turn them.
It is known that at first the author wanted to title the work with the phraseology: “All’s well that ends well.” This meant a positive outcome of the war, as well as the lives of the heroes after all the events, difficulties, and ups and downs. But later the writer thought this title was too superficial, not reflecting the full depth of the novel. In addition, it limited the author in developing the plot. The phrase implies an ideally good ending for everyone, but this could not happen in principle.
There were also other options: “1805” and “Decembrist”, but they turned out to be too narrow to display all the facets of a novel of this magnitude.
What is the meaning of the name?
L. N. Tolstoy gives his most fundamental work an ambiguous title, creating a contrast. The name of the novel is deep and multifaceted. The war here not only recalls the hostilities that took place during the described historical period. This is a split in 19th century society. This is the spiritual path of the heroes, the search for harmony, internal struggles, experiences, and tossing. These are difficulties in relationships between people, intra-family, love conflicts. This is the ambiguity, the contradictory nature of the images themselves. And also clashes of views, opinions on important social issues, the correct answer to which even the author did not know.
Society at War
In turn, peace, as the opposite concept, is harmony, finding personal happiness, acceptance, understanding of oneself and others. And not just the absence of hostility. On the other hand, the events of 1805-1807 and 1812 changed the heroes, turned their worldview upside down, developed new personal qualities, helped them get to know themselves, their comrades, and realize the truths of life. In the novel, the words “world” and “society” are synonymous. The work could have been renamed “Society and War.” Much attention is paid to the person, the individual during combat operations. Andrei Bolkonsky is greatly changed by the Battle of Austerlitz. The author puts his hero on a fine line between life and death. Strong emotions, stress, existential experiences, serious injury become a test of the truth of his beliefs, the morality of his ideals, the strength of his moral principles, but Andrei breaks this severe test and deprives him of inner harmony. And Pierre compares his experience in society with the events experienced in the war to form philosophical views, his new worldview, and cultivate an inner core.
The world is life, so the word in the title also carries a vital meaning.
Themes of the epic novel
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The books are devoted to two main topics. One of them is the Russian-French wars of 1805 and 1812. Tolstoy describes the wars, particularly the battles of Austerlitz (1805) and Borodino (1812), in vivid detail, apparently with great historical accuracy. The characters of Napoleon and Kutuzov (the leader of the Russian army) take an active part in the narrative, with lesser leaders (Bagration, de Tolly, Davout) also receiving enough attention to build a full, interesting story. Specific events of the war are covered with the participation of the main characters of the book, such as Andrei Bolkonsky, Nikolai Rostov, Pierre Bezukhov.
The other is the Russian high society of that time. The book gives a very interesting, in-depth look at this unusual society, which by today's standards is somewhat modeled, thus similar to other European societies (French, British, etc.). Tolstoy also provides some insight into life in rural Russia and the relationship between nobles and serfs, although he does not spend as much effort on this topic as in Anna Karenina.
The characters in the book are diverse and represent different ideas that Lev Nikolaevich tries to infuse into his narrative. All of them, without exception, are extremely believable, well-developed, and lively. I can't think of other authors who know how to present and develop their characters like Tolstoy.
Opposition
The novel is built on antithesis, which here becomes the main method of artistic expressiveness of the text. The dialogue of contrasts continues throughout the plot. The name has a deep philosophical meaning. Much broader than it might seem to the person who first opened this book. Peace is not just peace, the antithesis of battles and battles. This is life, people, society, views, ideals. As well as internal harmony, which the heroes strive for throughout the entire plot, and achieve through internal struggle and suffering. And war is these confrontations. The name connects all events, individuals, entire families with invisible threads, creating a single outline of the narrative.
In Russian folklore there is a truth: “Every cloud has a silver lining.” And L.N. Tolstoy: “There is no peace without war.”
Composition
When analyzing the work “War and Peace,” it is necessary to note the complexity and multi-stage nature of its construction. Not only the novel, but even each volume and each chapter has its own important plot elements (commencement, climax, denouement). The book closely intertwines the main storylines, many characters and episodes are contrasted with each other.
The work consists of 4 volumes and an epilogue, and each part of the book corresponds to a certain time period.
- Volume 1 (1805) - a description of the war and the main characters, overwhelmed by ambitious dreams.
- Volume 2 (1806–1811) – displays the problems and difficult life situations in which each of the novel’s heroes found themselves.
- Volume 3 (1812) - entirely dedicated to the War of 1812. Description of the Battle of Borodino as the climax of the novel.
- Volume 4 (1812–1813) - the onset of the long-awaited peace, with the arrival of which the main characters have an epiphany.
- Epilogue (1820) – Part I – a narrative about the further fate of the central characters; Part II – the author’s reflections on the causes of wars and the role of the individual in history.
Genre
It is quite simple to define the genre of “War and Peace” - it is an epic novel . Its main differences from other literary genres are the large volume of the work, the scale of the displayed historical events and issues.
In terms of genre, “War and Peace” is a very complex work, since it contains the characteristic features of historical, social, everyday, philosophical, battle novels, as well as memoirs and chronicles.
Since the novel involves many historical figures and gives descriptions of real historical events, shows the fate of heroes from different social strata, as well as a critical attitude towards court false patriots, the novel is usually classified as a literary movement of critical realism.
How Tolstoy defined the genre of “War and Peace”
Lev Nikolaevich did not specifically define the genre of War and Peace. In his opinion, the writer’s task is to convey to the reader the main idea, his worldview, without relying on literary definitions. He said this: “...this is not a novel, much less a poem...”.
The complex artistic structure is based on elements of memoirs, documentary chronicles, philosophical, family and everyday narration, battle and socio-psychological novels.
See also: The main idea of the novel “War and Peace”: how to formulate the main idea of the novel
