Negative images in the novel war peace. Female characters in the novel War and Peace - essay. Natasha Rostova. Trials in life
Plan: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Secondary school s/p “Pivan Village”
Essay
Female images of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace".
Completed by: Olya Rubashova
Checked:_______________
2008
1. Introduction
2. Natasha Rostova
3. Maria Bolkonskaya.
4. Conclusion
Introduction
It is impossible to 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 narrative. Since the beginning of the world, men have admired, idolized and worshiped the fair half of humanity. A woman is always surrounded by an aura of mystery and mystery. The woman’s actions lead to confusion and bewilderment. To delve into the psychology of a woman and 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 support and hope, an object of admiration. Turgenev sang the image of a persistent, honest woman, capable of making 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 this is why the image of a woman in Russian literature is so striking in its brightness, originality, and strength of emotional experiences.
Beloved women have always served as a source of inspiration for men. Everyone has their own ideal of women, but at all times, representatives of the stronger sex have admired women’s devotion, ability to sacrifice, and patience. A true woman will forever remain inextricably linked with her family, children, and home. And men will never cease to be surprised by women’s whims, seek explanations for women’s actions, and fight for women’s love!
Natasha Rostova
Tolstoy showed his ideal in the image of Natasha Rostova. For him, she was the true woman.
Throughout the entire novel, we follow how a little playful girl becomes a real woman, a mother, a loving wife, and a homemaker.
From the very beginning, Tolstoy emphasizes that there is not an ounce of falsehood in Natasha; she senses unnaturalness and lies more acutely than anyone else. With her appearance at the name day in a living room full of official ladies, she disrupts this atmosphere of pretense. All her actions are subordinated to feelings, not reason. She even sees people in her own way: Boris is black, narrow, like a mantel clock, and Pierre is square, red-brown. For her, these characteristics are enough to understand who is who.
Natasha is called "living life" in the novel. With her energy, she inspires life in those around her. 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, seeing Natasha, felt that all was not lost for him. And after the engagement, the whole world for Andrei 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 her passion for 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 tried to live every second, and a year for her was equal to eternity. Tolstoy endows his heroine with all the best qualities, moreover, she rarely evaluates her actions, most often relying on her inner moral sense.
Like all his favorite heroes, the author sees Natasha Rostova as part of the people. He emphasizes this in the scene at his uncle’s, when “the countess, raised by a French emigrant,” danced no worse than Agafya. This feeling of unity with the people, as well as true patriotism, pushes Natasha to give away all the carts for the wounded when leaving Moscow and leave almost all her 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 that was not important to 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, while listening, try to remember what they are told, in order to enrich their minds and on occasion to retell the same... but the pleasure that real women give, gifted with the ability to select and suck into themselves all the best that is in a man’s manifestations.”
Natasha realized herself as a wife and mother. Tolstoy emphasizes that she herself raised all her children (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 don’t want to say that the author needed all of 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 outlining the character of the heroine, showing her inner world, age-related changes, etc. Tolstoy distinguishes between her early hobbies and her later, more serious ones. The heroine herself notices the transition from childhood amorousness to true love. She talks about this when she fell in love with Andrei Bolkonsky: “I was in love with Boris, with the teacher, with Denisov, but this is not the same at all. I feel calm and firm. I know that there are no better people than him, and I feel so calm, good now, not at all like before.” And even before, it turns out, she did not attach much importance to her affections, without reproach she admitted to herself her own frivolity. Let us remember how she contrasted herself with Sonya: “She will love anyone forever, but I don’t understand this, I’ll forget now.” According to fifteen-year-old Natasha, she never wanted to get married at that time and was going to tell Boris about it when she first met 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” - as Vasily Denisov put it, Natasha charmed people not only with her external beauty, but with her spiritual makeup. Her face was not particularly attractive; even the flaws in it were distinguished by the author, which became more noticeable when she cried. “And Natasha, opening her big mouth and becoming completely different, began to roar like a child.” But she always remained beautiful when her girlish appearance was illuminated by the inner light. Tolstoy tries with all poetic means to convey her feeling of the joy of being. She experiences the happiness of living, peering inquisitively into the world, which surprises and pleases her more and more. Maybe this comes from the fact that she feels within herself all the potential to be loved and happy. The girl felt early that there was a lot of interesting and promising things in the world for her. After all, Tolstoy says that moments of experiencing feelings of joy were for her “a state of self-love.”
She surprised Andrei Bolkonsky with her cheerfulness: “What is she thinking about? Why is she so happy? Natasha herself valued her joyful mood. She had a special regard for an old dress that made her cheerful in the morning. Natasha's thirst for new impressions, playfulness, and a sense of delight were especially evident when she met her brother Nikolai and Vasily Denisov, who came to the Rostovs on leave. She “jumped like a goat all in one place and squealed shrilly.” Everything was extremely interesting and funny to her.
One of the sources of joy for her was the first feelings of love. She loved everything that seemed good to her. Natasha the girl’s attitude towards her loved one can be judged by how Yogel shows her well-being. “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, she was in love with.” As we see, the love theme does not acquire independent meaning in the novel, serving only to reveal the spiritual appearance of the heroine. Another thing is love for Andrei, Anatoly Kuragin, Pierre: it is somehow connected with the problems of family and marriage. I have already talked about this to some extent and will continue to talk about it ahead. Here it should only be noted that in the scandalous story with Anatoly 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 inside that her appearance doesn't matter. Her eyes emit such 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 her, because kindness, an integral part of her nature, softens this sometimes unpleasant feeling for 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 a person like Princess Marya deserves much more than an alliance with Anatoly Kuragin, who never understood what treasure he had lost; however, he had completely different moral values.
She lives by the naive worldview of church legend, which evokes 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 of his near-death experiences, Prince Andrei did not take Mary’s religious teachings seriously. It is only out of condescension towards his sister that he considers her religiosity. Taking the cross from her on the day of his departure for the army, Andrei jokingly remarks: “If he doesn’t break his neck by two pounds, then I’ll give you pleasure.” In his heavy thoughts on the Borodino field, Andrei doubts the dogmas of the church professed by Princess Marya, feeling their unconvincingness. “My father also built in Bald Mountains and thought that this was his place, his land, his air, his men, but Napoleon came and, not knowing about his existence, like a puppy from the road, 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 purpose of a test when there is none and there will never be one? Never again! He's gone! So who is this testing for? As for Tolstoy’s own attitude towards the heroine, the very mood of the image of Marya should be taken into account, putting 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 to us at the reasons for Marya's religiosity. The heroine could become like this due to the severe mental torment that befell her and instilled in her the idea of suffering and self-sacrifice. Marya was ugly, she worried about it and suffered. Because of her appearance, she had to endure humiliation, the most terrible and insulting of which was the one she experienced during Anatoly Kuragin's matchmaking with her, when the groom arranged a date with her companion Burien at night.
In Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" there are a huge number of interesting female characters. The images of women in the novel are revealed and evaluated by the author using his favorite technique - the contrast between internal and external.
Here is an essay on the topic “Female images in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE" for 10th grade. I hope the essay will help you prepare for your Russian literature lesson.
Female images in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
In the famous novel by L.N. Tolstoy depicts many human destinies, different characters, good and bad. It is the opposition of good and evil, morality and recklessness that lies at the heart of Tolstoy’s novel. At the center of the story are the fates of the writer’s favorite heroes - Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha and Marya Bolkonskaya. All of them are united by a sense of goodness and beauty, they are looking for their way in the world, striving for happiness and love.
But, of course, women have their own special purpose, given by nature itself; she is, first of all, a mother, a wife. For Tolstoy this is indisputable. The world of family is the basis of human society, and the mistress of it is a woman. The images of women in the novel are revealed and evaluated by the author using his favorite technique - contrasting the internal and external images of a person.
We see the ugliness of Princess Marya, but “ beautiful, radiant eyes » illuminate this face with an amazing light. Having fallen in love with Nikolai Rostov, the princess is transformed at the moment of meeting him so that Mademoiselle almost does not recognize her: “ chest, feminine notes “There is grace and dignity in the movements.
“For the first time, all the pure spiritual work that she had lived until now came out ” and made the heroine’s face beautiful.
We don’t notice any particular attractiveness in Natasha Rostova’s appearance either. Eternally changeable, in motion, responding violently to everything that happens around her, Natasha can “to open your big mouth, becoming completely stupid”, “to roar like a child”, “only because Sonya was crying ”, she may grow old and change beyond recognition from grief after Andrei’s death. It is precisely this kind of vital variability in Natasha that Tolstoy likes because her appearance is a reflection of the rich world of her feelings.
Unlike Tolstoy's favorite heroines - Natasha Rostova and Princess Marya, Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and at the same time strange immobility, fossilization. Tolstoy constantly mentions her " monotonous ”, « unchanging "smile and" antique beauty of the body ". She resembles a beautiful but soulless statue. It is not for nothing that the author does not mention her pelvis at all, which, on the contrary, in positive heroines always attracts our attention. Helen is good in appearance, but she is the personification of immorality and depravity. For the beautiful Helen, marriage is the path to enrichment. She cheats on her husband constantly, the animal nature prevails in her nature. Pierre, her husband, is struck by her inner rudeness. Helen is childless. " I'm not stupid enough to have children “,” she says blasphemous words. Not being divorced, she decides who she should marry, unable to choose one of her two suitors. Helen's mysterious death is due to the fact that she became entangled in her own intrigues. Such is this heroine, her attitude to the sacrament of marriage, to the responsibilities of a woman. But for Tolstoy, this is the most important thing in assessing the heroines of the novel.
Princess Marya and Natasha become wonderful wives. Not everything is available to Natasha in Pierre’s intellectual life, but with her soul she understands his actions and helps her husband in everything. Princess Marya captivates Nicholas with spiritual wealth, which is not given to his simple nature. Under the influence of his wife, his unbridled temper softens, for the first time he realizes his rudeness towards men. Marya does not understand Nikolai's economic worries, she is even jealous of her husband for them. But the harmony of family life lies in the fact that husband and wife seem to complement and enrich each other and form one whole. Temporary misunderstandings and mild conflicts are resolved here through reconciliation.
Marya and Natasha are wonderful mothers, but Natasha is more concerned about the health of the children (Tolstoy shows how she takes care of her youngest son). Marya amazingly penetrates into the child’s character and takes care of spiritual and moral education. We see that the heroines are similar in the main, most valuable qualities for the author - they are given the ability to subtly feel the mood of loved ones, to share other people's grief, they selflessly love their family. A very important quality of Natasha and Marya is naturalness and artlessness. They are not able to play a role, do not depend on prying eyes, and can violate etiquette. At her first ball, Natasha stands out precisely for her spontaneity and sincerity in expressing her feelings. Princess Marya, at the decisive moment of her relationship with Nikolai Rostov, forgets that she wanted to remain aloof and polite. She sits, thinking bitterly, then cries, and Nikolai, sympathizing with her, goes beyond the scope of small talk. As always, with Tolstoy everything is finally decided by a look that expresses feelings more freely than words: “ and the distant, impossible suddenly became close, possible and inevitable «.
In his novel “War and Peace,” the writer conveys to us his love for life, which appears in all its charm and completeness. And, considering the female images of the novel, we are once again convinced of this.
Female images in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
In the novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy draws, masterfully and convincingly, several types of female images and destinies. All heroines have their own destiny, their own aspirations, their own world. Their lives are surprisingly intertwined, and in different life situations and problems they behave differently. Many of these well-developed characters had prototypes. Reading a novel, you involuntarily live life with its characters. The novel contains a huge number of beautiful images of women from the early 19th century, some of which I would like to consider in more detail.
The central female characters of the novel are Natasha Rostova, her older sister Vera and their cousin Sonya, Marya Bolkonskaya, Helen Kuragina, and Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova.
Natasha Rostova is Tolstoy's favorite heroine. Her prototype is considered to be the writer's sister-in-law Tatyana Andreevna Bers, married to Kuzminskaya, who had musicality and a beautiful voice, and his wife Sofya Tolstaya.
We first meet her at her name day. Before us is a cheerful, cheerful, energetic thirteen-year-old girl. But she is far from beautiful: dark-eyed, with a big mouth... From the very first meeting with her, we see her naivety, childish simplicity, and this makes her more attractive and interesting. Tolstoy portrayed the best features of the girl in the character of Natasha. One of the main features is her amorousness, because love is her life. This concept includes not only love for the groom, but also love for parents, nature, and homeland.
Watching Natasha, we notice how she changes, grows up, becomes a girl, but that childish soul of hers, wide open and ready to bestow goodness on the whole world, also accompanies the heroine.
During the War of 1812, Natasha behaves confidently and courageously. At the same time, she does not evaluate and does not think about what she is doing. She obeys a certain “swarm” instinct of life. After the death of Petya Rostov, she is the head of the family. Natasha has been caring for the seriously wounded Bolkonsky for a long time. This is very difficult and dirty work. What Pierre Bezukhov saw in her immediately, when she was still a girl, a child - a tall, pure, beautiful soul, Tolstoy reveals to us gradually, step by step.
Natasha is a wonderful daughter and sister, becoming a wonderful mother and wife. This is what a woman should personify, her inner beauty.
Vera Rostova is Natasha's older sister, but they are so different from each other that we are even surprised at their relationship. She was brought up according to the then existing canons - from French teachers.
Tolstoy paints her as a beautiful, but cold, unkind woman who values the opinion of the world too much and always acts in accordance with its laws. Vera is not like the entire Rostov family.
Vera had neither radiant eyes nor a sweet smile, which means her soul was empty. “Vera was good, she was not stupid, she studied well, she was well-educated, she had a pleasant voice...” This is how Tolstoy describes Vera, as if hinting to us that this is all we need to know about her.
Vera acutely felt that her mother did not love her very much, which is probably why she often went against everyone around her and felt like a stranger among her brothers and sisters. She did not allow herself to sit on the window and smile sweetly at her friend, as Natasha and Sonya did, which is why she scolded them.
Maybe it was not for nothing that Tolstoy gave her the name Vera - the name of a closed, self-absorbed woman with a contradictory and complex character.
Sonya is the count's niece and Natasha Rostova's best friend. Tolstoy condemns and does not love this heroine, makes her lonely at the end of the novel and calls her “empty flower.”
She was reasonable, silent, cautious, restrained, she had a highly developed ability for self-sacrifice, but the heights were not accessible to her. Sonya is full of selfless and noble love for the whole family, “she was ready to sacrifice everything for her benefactors.” “The thought of self-sacrifice was her favorite thought.
thick female image Natasha
Sonya sincerely loves Nikolai, she can be kind and selfless. It is not her fault that she breaks up with Nikolai, it is Nikolai’s parents who are to blame. It is Rostov who insist that the wedding of Nikolai and Sonya be postponed to a later date. So, Sonya does not know how, like Natasha, to admire the beauty of the starry sky, but this does not mean that she does not see this beauty. Let's remember how beautiful this girl was at Christmas time during fortune telling. She was not a hypocrite, she was sincere and open. This is how Nikolai saw her. With her love, Sonya could do a lot, even with a person like Dolokhov. Perhaps with her selflessness she would have revived and purified this man.
Maria Bolkonskaya is the daughter of the old prince Nikolai Bolkonsky and the sister of Andrei. The prototype of Marya is the mother of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya.
She was a sad, unattractive, absent-minded girl who could only count on marriage thanks to her wealth. Marya, raised by the example of her proud, arrogant and distrustful father, soon becomes like that herself. His secrecy, restraint in expressing his own feelings and innate nobility are inherited by his daughter. They say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul; for Marya, they are indeed a reflection of her inner world.
Marya is waiting for love and ordinary female happiness, but she does not admit this even to herself. Her restraint and patience help her in all life's difficulties. The princess does not have such an all-consuming feeling of love for one person, so she tries to love everyone, still spending a lot of time in prayer and everyday concerns.
Marya Bolkonskaya, with her evangelical humility, is especially close to Tolstoy. It is her image that personifies the triumph of natural human needs over asceticism. The princess secretly dreams of marriage, of her own family, of children. Her love for Nikolai Rostov is a high spiritual feeling. In the epilogue of the novel, Tolstoy paints pictures of the Rostov family happiness, emphasizing that it was in the family that Princess Marya found the true meaning of life.
Helen Kuragina is the daughter of Prince Vasily, and later the wife of Pierre Bezukhov.
Helen is the soul of society, all men admire her beauty, praise her, fall in love with her, but only... and because of her attractive outer shell. She knows what she is like, she knows what she is worth, and that is exactly what she uses.
Helen is a beauty, but she is also a monster. Pierre revealed this secret, however, only after he approached her, after she married him to herself. No matter how mean and base it was, she forced Pierre to utter words of love. She decided for him that he loved her. This very dramatically changed our attitude towards Helen, made us feel the cold and danger in the ocean of her soul, despite the superficial charm, sparkle and warmth.
There is no mention of her childhood in the novel. But from her behavior throughout the entire action we can conclude that the upbringing given to her was not exemplary. The only thing Kuragina needs from any man is money.
“Elena Vasilievna, who has never loved anything except her body, and one of the stupidest women in the world,” thought Pierre, “seems to people to be the height of intelligence and sophistication, and they bow before her.” One cannot but agree with Pierre. A dispute may arise just because of her intelligence, but if you carefully study her entire strategy for achieving a goal, then you won’t notice much intelligence, rather insight, calculation, and everyday experience.
Anna Pavlovna Sherer is the owner of the famous St. Petersburg salon, which was considered good form to visit. Scherer was a maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna. Its characteristic feature is the constancy of deeds, words, internal and external gestures, even thoughts.
A restrained smile constantly plays on her face, although it no longer goes to the outdated features. It reminds me of what L.N. said. Tolstoy, spoiled children who do not quite want to improve. When they started talking about the emperor, Anna Pavlovna’s face “represented a deep and sincere expression of devotion and respect, combined with sadness.” This “represented” is immediately associated with play, with artificial, not natural behavior. Despite her forty years, she is “full of excitement and impulses.”
A.P. Scherer was clever, tactful, sweet, had a superficial but quick mind, a secular sense of humor, everything that was suitable for maintaining the popularity of the salon.
It is known that for Tolstoy, a woman is, first of all, a mother, the keeper of the family hearth. The high society lady, the owner of the salon, Anna Pavlovna, has no children and no husband. She is a "barren flower". This is the most terrible punishment that Tolstoy could come up with for her.
Maria Dmitrievna Akhrosimova is a Moscow lady known throughout the city “Not for wealth, not for honors, but for directness of mind and frank simplicity of communication.” The prototype of the heroine is A.D., famous in Moscow. Ofrosimova. Marya Dmitrievna was known in two capitals, and even by the royal family.
She always speaks loudly, in Russian, she has a thick voice, a corpulent body, Akhrosimova holds her fifty-year-old head with gray curls high. Mary Dmitrievna is close to the Rostov family, loving Natasha most of all.
I consider this woman truly patriotic, honest and selfless.
Liza Bolkonskaya is the little heroine of the novel, the wife of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. Tolstoy showed us very little of her, and her life was just as short. We know that her family life with Andrei did not go well, and her father-in-law considered her the same as all other women who have more shortcomings than advantages. Nevertheless, she is a loving and faithful wife. She sincerely loves Andrei and misses him, but humbly endures her husband’s long absence. Lisa's life is short and inconspicuous, but not empty, after her there was little Nikolenka.
Bibliography
- 1. L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
- 2. “L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” in Russian criticism, 1989.
- 3. http://sochinenie5ballov.ru/essay_1331.htm
- 5. http://www.kostyor.ru/student/?n=119
- 6. http://www.ronl.ru/referaty/literatura-zarubezhnaya/127955/
Women in the novel
Many female characters in Tolstov’s novel “War and Peace” have prototypes in the author’s real life. This is, for example, Maria Bolkonskaya (Rostova), Tolstoy based her image on his mother, Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya. Rostova Natalya Sr. is very similar to Lev Nikolaevich’s grandmother, Pelageya Nikolaevna Tolstoy. Natasha Rostova (Bezukhova) even has two prototypes: the writer’s wife, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya and her sister, Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya. Apparently, this is why Tolstoy creates these characters with such warmth and tenderness.
It is amazing how accurately he conveys the feelings and thoughts of people in the novel. The author subtly feels the psychology of a thirteen-year-old girl, Natasha Rostova, with her broken doll, and understands the grief of an adult woman, Countess Natalia Rostova, who lost her youngest son. Tolstoy seems to show their life and thoughts in such a way that the reader seems to see the world through the eyes of the heroes of the novel.
Despite the fact that the writer talks about the war, the female theme in the novel “War and Peace” fills the work with life and a variety of human relationships. The novel is full of contrasts, the author constantly contrasts good and evil, cynicism and generosity with each other.
Moreover, if negative characters remain constant in their pretense and inhumanity, then positive characters make mistakes, are tormented by pangs of conscience, rejoice and suffer, growing and developing spiritually and morally.
Rostov
Natasha Rostova is one of the main figures in the novel; one feels that Tolstoy treats her with special tenderness and love. Throughout the entire work, Natasha is constantly changing. We see her first as a little lively girl, then as a funny and romantic girl, and in the end - she is already an adult mature woman, the wise, beloved and loving wife of Pierre Bezukhov.
She makes mistakes, sometimes she is mistaken, but at the same time, her inner instinct and nobility help her understand people and feel their state of mind.
Natasha is full of life and charm, so even with a very modest appearance, as Tolstoy describes, she attracts people with her joyful and pure inner world.
The eldest Natalya Rostova, the mother of a large family, a kind and wise woman, seems very strict at first glance. But when Natasha pokes her nose into her skirts, the mother “fakely angrily” glares at the girl and everyone understands how much she loves her children.
Knowing that her friend is in a difficult financial situation, the Countess, embarrassed, gives her money. “Annette, for God’s sake, don’t refuse me,” the countess suddenly said, blushing, which was so strange considering her middle-aged, thin and important face, taking money out from under her scarf.”
With all the external freedom that she provides to the children, Countess Rostova is ready to go to great lengths for their well-being in the future. She discourages Boris from his youngest daughter, prevents the marriage of his son Nikolai with the dowry Sonya, but at the same time it is completely clear that she does all this only out of love for her children. And maternal love is the most selfless and brightest of all feelings.
Natasha’s older sister, Vera, stands a little apart, beautiful and cold. Tolstoy writes: “a smile did not grace Vera’s face, as usually happens; on the contrary, her face became unnatural and therefore unpleasant.”
She is annoyed by her younger brothers and sister, they interfere with her, her main concern is herself. Selfish and self-absorbed, Vera is not like her relatives; she does not know how to love sincerely and unselfishly, like them.
Fortunately for her, Colonel Berg, whom she married, was very suited to her character, and they made a wonderful couple.
Marya Bolkonskaya
Locked in a village with an old and oppressive father, Marya Bolkonskaya appears before the reader as an ugly, sad girl who is afraid of her father. She is smart, but not self-confident, especially since the old prince constantly emphasizes her ugliness.
At the same time, Tolstoy says about her: “the princess’s eyes, large, deep and radiant (as if rays of warm light sometimes came out of them in sheaves), were so beautiful that very often, despite the ugliness of her entire face, these eyes became more attractive than beauty . But the princess had never seen a good expression in her eyes, the expression they took on in those moments when she was not thinking about herself. Like all people, her face took on a tense, unnatural, bad expression as soon as she looked in the mirror.” And after this description, I want to take a closer look at Marya, watch her, understand what is going on in the soul of this timid girl.
In fact, Princess Marya is a strong personality with her own established outlook on life. This is clearly visible when she and her father do not want to accept Natasha, but after her brother’s death she still forgives and understands her.
Marya, like many girls, dreams of love and family happiness, she is ready to marry Anatol Kuragin and refuses marriage only for the sake of sympathy for Mademoiselle Burien. The nobility of her soul saves her from the vile and vile handsome man.
Fortunately, Marya meets Nikolai Rostov and falls in love with him. It is difficult to immediately say for whom this marriage becomes a great salvation. After all, he saves Marya from loneliness, and the Rostov family from ruin.
Although this is not so important, the main thing is that Marya and Nikolai love each other and are happy together.
Other women in the novel
In the novel “War and Peace,” female characters are depicted not only in beautiful and rainbow colors. Tolstoy also portrays very unpleasant characters. He always indirectly defines his attitude towards the characters in the story, but never speaks about it directly.
So, finding himself at the beginning of the novel in Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s living room, the reader understands how false she is with her smiles and ostentatious hospitality. Scherer “... is full of animation and impulses,” because “being an enthusiast has become her social position...”.
The flirtatious and stupid Princess Bolkonskaya does not understand Prince Andrei and is even afraid of him: “Suddenly the angry squirrel expression of the princess’s beautiful face was replaced by an attractive expression of fear that arouses compassion; She looked from under her beautiful eyes at her husband, and on her face appeared that timid and confessing expression that appears on a dog, quickly but weakly waving its lowered tail.” She does not want to change, develop, and does not see how the prince is bored with her frivolous tone, her unwillingness to think about what she says and what she does.
Helen Kuragina, a cynical, narcissistic beauty, deceitful and inhuman. Without hesitation, for the sake of entertainment, she helps her brother seduce Natasha Rostova, destroying not only Natasha’s life, but also Prince Bolkonsky’s. For all her external beauty, Helen is ugly and soulless internally.
Repentance, pangs of conscience - all this is not about her. She will always find an excuse for herself, and the more immoral she appears to us.
Conclusion
Reading the novel “War and Peace,” we plunge into the world of joys and sorrows together with the characters, are proud of their successes, and empathize with their grief. Tolstoy managed to convey all those subtle psychological nuances of human relationships that make up our lives.
Concluding the essay on the topic “Female images in the novel “War and Peace,” I would like to once again draw attention to how accurately and with what understanding of psychology the female portraits in the novel are written. With what awe, love and respect Tolstoy treats some female characters. And how mercilessly and clearly he shows the immorality and falsehood of others.
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