Natasha Rostova and Helen: two female types and two destinies. (Based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”)

Natasha Rostova and Helen: two female types and two destinies. (Based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”)

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Introduction:

War and Peace is one of those books that cannot be forgotten. Its very name contains the whole of human life. And “War and Peace” is a model of the structure of the world, the universe, and therefore in the fourth part of the novel (Pierre Bezukhov’s dream) a symbol of this world appears - a globe. “This ball was a living, oscillating ball without dimensions.” Its entire surface consisted of tightly pressed drops. The drops moved, moved, merged, then separated.

Each tried to spread out, to capture the largest space, but the others, shrinking, sometimes destroyed each other, sometimes merged together. “This is life,” said the old teacher, “who once taught Pierre geography. “How simple and clear everything is,” Pierre thought, “how I couldn’t have known this before.” “How simple and clear it 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. So, episode by episode, we move towards the infinite and eternal, that is, human life.

But the writer Tolstoy would not have been Tolstoy’s philosopher if he had not shown us the polar aspects of existence: life in which form predominates, and life which contains the fullness of content. It is from these Tolstoy's ideas about life that we consider female images, in which the author emphasizes their special purpose - to be a wife and mother. For Tolstoy, the world of family is the basis of human society, where women play a unifying role.

If a man has an intense intellectual and spiritual search, then a woman, who has more subtle intuition, lives by feelings and emotions. The clear contrast between good and evil in the novel was naturally reflected in the system of female images. The comparison of internal and external images as the writer’s favorite technique is evidenced by such heroines as Elena Kuragin, Natasha Rostova and Maria Bolkonskaya.

Female images of the novel “War and Peace”

Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal emptiness, fossilization. Tolstoy constantly mentions his “monotonous”, “unchanging” smile and “ancient beauty of the body”; it resembles a beautiful soulless statue. Scherer Elena enters the salon “noisily with its white sick mantle, cleansed with ivy and moss,” as a symbol of soullessness and coldness. It is not surprising that the author does not mention her eyes, while Natasha's "brilliant", "shining" eyes and Mary's "shining" eyes always attract our attention.

Helen personifies immorality and depravity. The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not know any moral standards and live according to the inexorable law of fulfilling their worthless desires. Helen marries only for her own enrichment. She constantly cheats on her husband because the animal principle prevails in her nature. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Elena childless. “I’m not stupid enough to have children,” she says in blasphemous words. Helen, in front of the whole society, is busy organizing her personal life, being the wife of Pierre, and her mysterious death is due to the fact that she got entangled in her own intrigues.

Such is Elena Kuragina with her disregard for the sacrament of marriage and the duties of a wife. It is not difficult to guess that Tolstoy embodied the worst feminine qualities in her and contrasted her with the images of Natasha and Maria.

We can’t help but say something about Sonya. The peaks of Maria’s spiritual life and Natasha’s “peaks of feelings” are inaccessible to her. She is too ordinary, too immersed in everyday life. She was 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 “empty,” but perhaps the life of a poor relative, the feeling of constant dependence, did not allow her to flourish.

One of the main characters of the novel is Natasha Rostova. Tolstoy portrays Natasha in the process of development, he traces Natasha's life through the years, and naturally, her feelings and her perception of life change over the years.

We meet Natasha for the first time when this little thirteen-year-old girl, “black-eyed, with a big mouth, ugly, but alive,” runs into the living room and runs into her mother. And with her image, the theme of “living life” is included in the novel. Tolstoy always appreciated Natasha’s fullness of life, the desire to live interestingly, fully and, most importantly, every minute. Overwhelmed by optimism, she tries to keep up everywhere: to console Sonya, naively declare her childhood love for Boris, argue about the type of ice cream, sing the song “The Key” with Nikolai and dance with Pierre. Tolstoy writes that “the essence of her life is love.” It combines the most valuable qualities of a person: love, poetry, life. Of course, we don’t believe her when she “in all seriousness” tells Boris: “Forever... until death.” “And, taking his hand, she quietly walked with him next to the sofa with a happy face.”

All of Natasha’s actions are determined by the requirements of her character, and not by rational choice, so she is not just a participant in a certain personal life, since she does not belong to one family circle, but to the world of a universal movement. And perhaps Tolstoy had this in mind when he spoke of the historical characters in the novel: “Only unconscious activity bears fruit, and the person who plays a role in a historical event never understands its significance. If he tries to understand it, he is stricken with sterility.

She, without trying to understand her role, thereby already defines it for herself and for others. “The whole world for me is divided into two halves: one is hers, and there is all the happiness, hope, light; the other half is everything where she is not there, there is all darkness and gloom,” Prince Andrei will say four years later. But while she is sitting at the festive table, she looks at Boris with childish love. “The same look of hers sometimes turned to Pierre, and under the gaze of this cheerful, lively girl he wanted to laugh, not knowing what.” So, Natasha finds herself in unconscious movement, and we see her naturalness, a quality that will constitute an unchanging property of her life.

Natasha Rostova's first ball became the place where she met Andrei Bolkonsky, which led to a clash of their life positions, which had a huge impact on both of them.

During the ball she was not interested in the sovereign or all the important persons indicated by Peronska; she did not pay attention to court intrigues. She is waiting for joy and happiness. Tolstoy clearly distinguishes her from everyone present at the ball, contrasting her with secular society. Enthusiastic, frozen with excitement, Natasha is described by L. Tolstoy with love and tenderness. His ironic remarks about the managing adjutant, asking everyone to step aside “somewhere else”, about “some lady”, about the vulgar fuss around the rich bride, gave us a shallow and false light, and Natasha among them is shown as the only natural being .

Tolstoy contrasts the lively, seething, always unexpected Natasha with the cold Elena, a secular woman who lives by the rules and never commits rash acts. “Natasha’s bare neck and arms were thin and ugly compared to Elena’s shoulders. Her shoulders were thin, her breasts were vague, her arms were thin; but Helen already seemed to have varnish from all the thousands of glances sliding over her body,” and that makes it seem vulgar. This impression is strengthened when we remember that Helen is soulless and empty, that in her body, carved from marble, lives a stone soul, greedy, without a single movement of feelings. This reveals Tolstoy's attitude towards secular society, and Natasha's exclusivity is once again emphasized.

What did Natasha’s meeting with Andrei Bolkonsky give? As a truly natural being, although she did not think about it, she sought to create a family and could only find happiness in a family. The meeting with Prince Andrei and his proposal created the conditions for achieving her ideal. As she prepared to start a family, she was happy. However, happiness was not destined to last long. Prince Andrei longed for Natasha, but did not understand her, he did not have a natural instinct, so he postponed the wedding, not understanding that Natasha must love constantly, that she must be happy every minute. He himself provoked her betrayal.

Portrait characteristics allow us to reveal the main qualities of her character. Natasha is cheerful, natural, direct. The older she gets, the faster she turns from a girl to a girl, the more she wants to be admired, loved, and to be the center of attention. Natasha loves herself and believes that everyone should love her; she says about herself: “How lovely this Natasha is.” And everyone really admires her, loves her. Natasha is like a ray of light in a boring and gray secular society.

Tolstoy, emphasizing Natasha’s ugliness, states: it is not external beauty that matters. The riches of her inner nature are important: talent, 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 said that Natasha “doesn’t deserve to be smart,” she has always been smart and understanding people. When Nikolenka, having lost almost all of her Rostov fortune, 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 who follows him, he just 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, dear! But Mom. “And no Nicholas is captivated by her voice. After all, Natasha’s voice had extraordinary merits.” In her voice there was that virginity, that untouchedness, that ignorance of her strength and that still unworked velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in that voice without destroying it.”

Adults, admiring her voice, often said that it was not processed, although it was good, but as soon as Natasha began to sing, everyone listened to her voice and wanted these wonderful moments to last forever.

Natasha understands Denisov very well, who proposed to her. She wants him and understands that “he didn’t want to talk, but he already said it by accident.” Natasha has an art that not everyone is given. She knows how to sympathize. When Sonya roared, Natasha, not knowing the reason for her friend’s tears, “opened her big mouth and became completely bad, 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 Anatoly Kuragin and Elena 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 supplies to the wounded, leaving things behind, and does not imagine that in such a situation it is possible to do otherwise.

Natasha is close to the Russian people. She loves folk songs, traditions, music. From all this we can conclude that passionate, lively, loving, patriotic Natasha is capable of feats. Tolstoy makes it clear that Natasha will go to Siberia to follow the Decembrist Pierre. Isn't this a feat?

We meet Princess Maria Bolkonskaya from the first pages of the novel. Ugly and rich. Yes, she was ugly and even very ugly in herself, but this was, according to strangers, distant people who hardly knew her. All those few who loved her and loved her knew and caught her beautiful and radiant appearance. Princess Mary herself did not know all his charms and powers. This very look illuminated everything around with the light of warm love and tenderness. Prince Andrei often caught this look on himself; Julia recalled in her letters the untouched, calm look of Princess Maria, therefore, according to Julia, she went missing, and Nikolai Rostov fell in love with the princess precisely for this look. But when she thought about herself, the sparkle in Maria’s eyes dimmed and went somewhere deep into her soul. Her eyes became the same: sad and, most importantly, scared, which makes her ugly, sickly face even uglier.

Marya Bolkonskaya, the daughter of the general-in-chief, Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, lived continuously on the Lysy Gora estate. She had no friends or girlfriends. Only Yulia Karagin wrote to her, thereby bringing joy and variety to the gray, monotonous life of the princess. The father himself was involved in raising his daughter: he gave her lessons in algebra and geometry. But what did these lessons teach her? How could she understand anything, feeling the gaze and breath of her father, whom she feared and loved more than anything in the world? The princess respected him and was in awe of him and of everything that was done with his hands. Religion was the main consolation and, perhaps, a teacher: in prayer she found peace, help and a solution to all problems.

All the complex laws of human activity were concentrated for Princess Mary 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 Bourien. But sometimes Princess Mary thinks that she thinks 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.

So, Prince Vasily and his son Anatole come to Bald Mountains. Probably, in her secret thoughts, Princess Mary had long been waiting for just such a future husband: handsome, noble, kind.

Old Prince Bolkonsky invites his daughter to decide her own destiny. And perhaps she would have made a fatal mistake by agreeing to the marriage if she had not accidentally seen Anatole hugging Mademoiselle Burien. Princess Maria refuses Anatoly Kuragin, refuses because she decides to live only for the sake of her father and nephew.

The princess does not accept Natasha Rostovskaya when she goes with her father to meet Bolkonsky. She treats Natasha with some internal hostility. Perhaps she loves her brother too much, values ​​his freedom, is afraid that some completely sensitive woman might take him away, take him away, win his love. And the terrible word “stepmother”? This alone inspires hostility and disgust.

Princess Maria in Moscow asks Pierre Bezukhov about Natasha Rostova. “Who is this girl and how did you find her?” She asks to tell “the whole truth.” Pierre senses "the hostility of Princess Mary towards her future daughter-in-law." She really wants “Pierre not to approve the choice of Prince Andrei.”

Pierre doesn't know how to answer this question. “I definitely don’t know who this girl is, I just can’t analyze her. She’s charming,” says Pierre.

But this answer did not satisfy Princess Mary. "She's smart?" The princess asked. Thought Pierre. “I think not,” he said, “but yes.” She won't deign to be smart. “Princess Mary shook her head again in disapproval,” Tolstoy notes.

All Tolstoy's heroes fall in love. Princess Maria Bolkonskaya falls in love with Nikolai Rostov. Having fallen in love with Rostov, the princess transforms during a meeting with him so that Mademoiselle Burien almost does not recognize her: “a chest, feminine notes” appear in her voice, grace and dignity in her movements. “For the first time, all that pure spiritual inner work that she had been doing until now came out” and made the heroine’s face beautiful. Finding herself in a difficult situation, she accidentally meets Nikolai Rostov, and he helps her cope with the difficult peasant and leave the Bald Mountains.

Princess Maria loves Nicholas not at all the way Sonya loved her, who had to constantly do something and sacrifice something. And not like Natasha, who needed her lover to just be there, smile, rejoice and speak words of love to her. Princess Mary loves quietly, calmly, happily. And this happiness is enhanced by the realization that she has finally fallen in love and fallen in love with a good, noble, honest man.

And Nikolai sees and understands all this. Fate is pushing them more and more towards each other. A meeting in Voronezh, an unexpected letter from Sonya, which freed Nikolai from all his duties and promises given to Sonya: what is this if not command of fate?

In the fall of 1814, Nikolai Rostov married Princess Maria 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 Countess Maria Rostova. She tried to understand Nikolai in everything, she wanted, really wanted to love Sonya but 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 a higher divine love. Sometimes Nicholas, looking at his wife, was horrified by the thought of what would happen to him and his children if Countess Maria died. He loved her more than life itself, and they were happy.

Marya Bolkonskaya and Natasha Rostova become wonderful wives. Not everything is accessible to Natasha in Pierre’s intellectual life, but in her soul she understands his actions and tries to help her husband in everything. Princess Maria captivates Nicholas with spiritual wealth, which is not given to his simple nature. Under the influence of his wife, his wild temper softens, and for the first time he realizes his rudeness towards men. Harmony in family life, as we see, is achieved when husband and wife seem to complement and enrich each other, forming a single whole. In the families of Rostov and Bezukhov, mutual understanding and inevitable conflicts are resolved through reconciliation. Love reigns here.

Marya and Natasha are wonderful mothers. However, Natasha is more concerned about the health of the children, and Marya penetrates into the character of the child, taking care of his spiritual and moral education.

Tolstoy endows the heroines with the most valuable, in his opinion, qualities - the ability to subtly sense the mood of loved ones, share grief with others, and selflessly love their family.

A very important quality of Natasha and Maria is naturalness and ingenuousness. They are not able to play a predetermined role, do not depend on the opinions of strangers, and do not live according to the laws of the world. At her first big ball, Natasha stands out for her sincerity in expressing her feelings. Princess Maria, at the decisive moment of her relationship with Nikolai Rostov, forgets that she wanted to remain polite, and their conversation goes beyond the scope of small talk: “the distant, impossible suddenly became close, possible and inevitable.”

Possessing similarities in the best moral qualities, Natasha and Maria are, in fact, completely different, almost opposite natures. Natasha lives excitedly, seizes every moment, she does not have enough words to express the fullness of her feelings, the heroine loves to dance, hunt, and sing. She is very gifted with a love for people, open-mindedness, and a talent for communication.

Mary also lives in love, but there is a lot of meekness, humility, and selflessness in her. He often penetrates thoughts from earthly life into other spheres. “The soul of Countess Maria,” writes Tolstoy in the epilogue, “strove for infinity, eternity and perfection and therefore could never be calm.”

It was Princess Maria that Leo Tolstoy saw as the ideal woman, and most importantly, his wife. Princess Mary does not live for herself: she wants to be engaged and makes happiness for her husband and children. But she herself is happy, her happiness lies in her love for her neighbors, their joy and well-being, which, however, should be the happiness of every woman.

Natasha Rostova and Helen: two female types and two destinies

Both Natasha and Elena are women of the same circle, society ladies, but how different they are in character and upbringing!

Helen is a beauty, but her beauty is marble, cold, dead and on her body “like varnish from all the thousands of glances that slid over it.” There is a constant smile on her beautiful face, but it means nothing, it is always the same for everyone. In fact, this is a mask that hides the emptiness of the soul and the stupidity of the “countess of high society.” When the story of any of the guests of the salon made an impression, Elena turned to Anna Pavlovna and took on the same expression that was on the face of the maid of honor. She then "settled back into a radiant smile."

Natasha Rostova is very different in beauty. Her mouth is too big, her shoulders are thin, but she is attractive with her sincerity and spontaneity. Prince Andrew, disappointed after realizing the futility of his ambitious desires, is reborn after a conversation with Pierre and a meeting with Natasha. He sees a young, joyful, happy girl and asks himself: “Why is she so happy? What is she thinking about? ..And how happy is she?”

Having accidentally overheard a conversation at the window on a delightful night, having learned that Natasha dreams of flying like birds, Bolkonsky suddenly saw the beauty around him and realized that it was worth living. Now it was not enough for him to simply not bother anyone, he wanted to act, to do good to people. Pierre Helen evokes a completely opposite, heavy feeling. Even before marriage he felt some kind of deception; the unnaturalness of their relationship led him to difficult thoughts. “But she’s a fool, I said it myself that she’s a fool,” he thought. "This is not love. On the contrary, there is something disgusting, something forbidden in what she awakened in me.” And after the wedding, he realized all the insignificance and meanness of this woman. “Where you are, there is debauchery and evil,” he says, having learned that Helen took her brother with Natasha.

And this is even more painful for Pierre, because they deceived someone who, as he knew, sincerely believed in people, in love and dreamed of happiness, which always and in everything gives itself entirely, without hesitation. “This girl is such a treasure, such... This is a rare girl,” Pierre says about Natasha. And just as she had no doubt that she needed to run away with her beloved, since she loved him, she could not do otherwise, the question of whether to distribute carts for the wounded or take her chests did not stand before her. How can you not do this? “This can’t be what you order... This can’t be!” She says excitedly. And indeed, it seems that it was impossible to allow anyone to think otherwise. But no, it turns out that this is possible, as Berg did by buying a cheap “chiffonier” at a time of national grief.

Natasha, like other goodies in the novel, is a true, active patriot. She loves her Motherland, her people, in whom she believes and is proud. There is something uniquely Russian in her soul, something that is not artificially grafted, but is absorbed with her mother’s milk. Natasha has a folk spirit that made her love the songs of her uncle, who “sang like people sing,” who helped her dance a real Russian in his home. She subtly senses the beauty of nature.

It's hard to imagine Elena in Natasha's place. In her, in Elena, there is neither feeling nor musicality. It seems that her soul is also covered by the external conditions of light. Elena doesn't sing, doesn't understand music, doesn't notice nature. Natasha, on the other hand, not only dances miraculously, but also sings beautifully - soulfully, with soul, forgetting about everything. A musical person is always more sensitive and feels deeper. This is Natasha. Despite the outward rudeness of her mother's treatment, she could always hug her so tightly that the Countess was neither hurt nor embarrassed. Conversely, Elena, proudly floating through the halls, is actually rude and tactless.

Tolstoy repeatedly uses the word “rude” to characterize Elena’s actions. When Pierre leaned over to kiss her hand, she “with a quick and rough movement of her head grabbed him by the lips...”. And how cruelly and rudely she talks to Pierre after his fight with Dolokhov! The mask was removed, revealing Helen's true, repulsive face. Natasha always remains herself. Her gentle soul is visible everywhere.

Here she is crying with Sonya, not knowing why, but only because her friend is crying, here she is sincerely happy when she sees that she is happy not only from love for Bolkonsky himself, but also for Sonya and Nikolai, so she is almost crying. Matchmaker Denisov refuses pity. Natasha lives honestly, with her soul. Let her make mistakes, get confused, get worked up and give up, the main thing is that she is always fighting, always restless. “No one in the house sent so many people and gave them so much work as Natasha... but people did not want to carry out such orders like Natasha’s people.”

For Helena, everything is thought out in advance and done in accordance with the unwritten laws of high society. Therefore, her life is monotonous and boring. And, according to Tolstoy, “the world is spiritual meanness.”

We never see Natasha calm, she worries, worries about her loved ones, and most importantly, she wants to help everyone. At the first ball in her life, she wore the very last one, adjusting and pinning little things to the costume of the Countess and Sonya.

She cannot immediately benefit people, but finally, having become Pierre's wife and mother, she finds joy in life, supporting her husband in his social activities, understanding and sharing his feelings, thoughts and desires. This is the ideal of a woman from Tolstoy’s point of view. Helen cannot become a mother because she has traded in the pleasures of high society.

Of course, Natasha Rostova is the writer’s favorite heroine. He pays incomparably more attention to her than anyone else, draws her portrait, describes feelings, feelings so clearly reflected on her face. Natasha's eyes are always different: laughter, pleading, curious, mocking, shining - the mirror of the soul. And just as Elena's soul is empty, her eyes are empty and expressionless. The reflection of the inner world of Tolstoy’s heroes is also their speech. We hear the natural, truly Russian, enthusiastic or excited speech of Natasha - and the unnatural, pompous, mixed Russian and French speech of Helen.

The image of Natasha Tolstoy embodied his cherished thought: “We must live with our hearts.” This is how Natasha lives!

This is her nature, manifested in actions, dances and dances, in internal monologues of incorrect direct speech. The main techniques for creating female images are static (Elena) and dynamic (Natasha) portraits, actions, characterization through the perception of other characters and style.

Leo Tolstoy's successes in creating female types are truly great. They enrich us morally, aesthetically (Natasha), expose falsity: the author “rips off the masks” from society ladies (Elena). With great artistic skill, the writer depicted some women and sentenced others.

Conclusion

Tolstoy resolved the issue of the place of women in society in his own way: the place of women 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 works, the world seems multifaceted; there is a place for a variety of, sometimes opposing, characters. The writer gives us his love for life, which is in all its charm and fullness. And, given the female characters in the novel, we are once again convinced of this.

“How simple and clear it is” - we are once again convinced that we turn our gaze to the globe, where there are no drops that destroy each other, and they all merged into one big and bright world, like at the very beginning - in the Rostov house. And in this world, Natasha and Pierre, Nikolai and Princess Maria remain with the little Prince Bolkonsky, and “you need to hold hands as close as possible and as many people as possible in order to resist the general catastrophe.

Other heroines of the novel

In the novel “War and Peace” there are female characters and not only pure and sincere girls. The outwardly beautiful Helen Kuragina marries Pierre because he has a large inheritance, and his father advised him to do so. Her beauty was admired by everyone who saw her. However, such vile and insidious deeds were hidden behind such an appearance.

To have fun, she helps her brother seduce Natasha, destroying her further relationship with Bolkonsky. She cheated on her husband, was deceitful and hypocritical. Helen turns out to be a woman with an ugly soul and beautiful appearance, who will always find an excuse for herself. Through time and people talked about her love interests. Then Helen converts to the Catholic faith to start a new family, but dies. In the image of this negative heroine, the author strictly showed the shortcomings that representatives of secular society have.

When comparing Natasha Rostova and Helen Kuragina, two opposing characters are visible:

1. Natasha is a selfless girl, she believes in pure love and is ready to take care of a loved one. She lives for the sake of others, she has a rich inner world.
2. Helen's characterization shows that she deceives everyone, loves entertainment and leads an idle lifestyle.

Natasha is portrayed as Tolstoy’s ideal and favorite character, since the author appreciates the qualities of people that she possesses. Such a comparative analysis briefly shows the essence of the heroines.

In the novel there is a girl named Julie Karagina. She inherited from her dead brothers and is a rich bride. There is a mask of calm on her face; there is artificiality and pretense in her behavior. The writer shows her as stupid, not having her own point of view to support the conversation, she imitates other people's reasoning. This behavior pushes people away from her, and her husband despises her. Her friend Marya Bolkonskaya stopped corresponding and meeting with her, because it was not interesting to communicate with Karagina.

The author treats Anna Pavlovna with irony and hostility: “Being an enthusiast became her social position... The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, a constant awareness of her cute shortcoming, which she does not want, cannot, does not find it necessary to get rid of.”

In his work, Tolstoy answers the question of historical female images: in heroines, it is not so much the beautiful appearance that is important, but the beauty that manifests itself internally. Helen, apart from her external attractiveness, has no values ​​in life, she is immoral and false. The writer’s priority is the image of a heroine who gives love and care, despite difficulties. In addition, Tolstoy shows the fate of a woman who forgets about her soul, striving to create a beautiful picture, and this path leads her into the abyss.