Why did Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha break up? “Strange Love” by Natasha and Andrey. Who's to blame

Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky are one of the main characters of L. N. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace”. It is on the life quests of Andrei Bolkonsky, as well as Pierre Bezukhov, that the storyline of this work is built. Natasha became for the writer the embodiment of true human qualities: true love and spiritual beauty. Fate brought Andrei and Natasha together, they fell in love with each other, but their relationship was not simple. And I want to write my essay about these two heroes. First, I would like to talk about each of these characters separately, and then give an analysis of the history of their relationships.

Natasha was the most beloved heroine of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. He embodied the best traits in this girl. Tolstoy, apparently, did not consider his heroine prudent and adapted to life. But her simplicity and spirituality of heart defeated the lack of a deep, sharp mind and observance of good manners.

Despite her appearance, ugliness in childhood and youth (many times Tolstoy mercilessly emphasizes that Natasha is far from being as beautiful as, for example, Helen), she nevertheless attracted many people precisely with her extraordinary spiritual qualities. Many episodes of the novel talk about how Natasha inspires people, makes them better, kinder, and gives them back their love for life. For example, when Nikolai Rostov loses to Dolokhov at cards and returns home irritated, not feeling the joy of life, he hears Natasha singing and, enjoying the soothing sound of this wonderful voice, forgets all his sorrows and anxieties. Nikolai feels that life itself is beautiful, that everything else is trifles not worth attention, and most importantly, that “... suddenly the whole world was focused for him, waiting for the next note, the next phrase...” Nikolai thinks: “All this : and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all nonsense, but here she is - real ... "

Natasha, of course, helped people not only in difficult situations. She simply, by her mere existence, brought joy and happiness to the people around her. In this regard, I remember the fiery Russian dance in Otradnoye. Or one more episode. Otradnoe again. Night. Natasha, whose soul is full of bright poetic feelings, asks Sonya to go to the window, peer into the extraordinary beauty of the starry sky, and inhale the smells. She exclaims: “After all, such a lovely night has never happened!” But Sonya does not understand Natasha’s animated, enthusiastic excitement. She does not have the spark of God that Tolstoy sang in her beloved heroine. Such a girl is not interesting to either the reader or the author. “Barren flower,” Natasha will say about her, and this word will be the most cruel about Sonya.

It is not surprising that many men were in love with Natasha, including Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. For the first time, Tolstoy introduces us to Prince Andrei in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer and describes his appearance. The writer pays a lot of attention to the expression of boredom and dissatisfaction on the prince’s face: he had a “tired, boring look,” and often “a grimace spoils his handsome face.” Andrei Bolkonsky received a good education and upbringing. His father is an associate of Suvorov, a symbol of the 18th century era. It was his father who taught Prince Bolkonsky to value such human virtues in people as loyalty to honor and duty. Andrei Bolkonsky treats secular society with contempt because he sees and understands the emptiness of the representatives of the “light”. He calls the people who gather in the salon of A.P. Scherer “stupid society”, since he is not satisfied with this idle, empty, worthless life. It’s not for nothing that he says to Pierre Bezukhov: “The life I lead here is not for me.” And again: “Drawing rooms, balls, gossip, vanity, insignificance - this is a vicious circle from which I cannot escape.”

Prince Andrey is a richly gifted person. He lives in the era of the French Revolution and the Patriotic War of 1812. In such an environment, Prince Andrei is looking for the meaning of life. At first these are dreams of “my Toulon”, dreams of glory. But being wounded on the Field of Austerlitz leads the hero to disappointment. In general, the story of his life is a chain of disappointments of the hero: first in fame, then in socio-political activities, and, finally, in love.

The relationship between Natasha and Andrei, I think, constitutes one of the most touching pages of the novel. The love of Rostova and Bolkonsky is a feeling that was subjected to many life tests, but withstood, survived, retained its depth and tenderness. Let us remember the meeting of Natasha and Andrei at the ball. It seems like it's love at first sight. It would be more accurate to call it some kind of sudden unity of feelings and thoughts of two unfamiliar people. They understood each other suddenly, at a glance, they felt something that united them both, a certain unity of souls. Prince Andrei seemed to look younger next to Natasha. He became relaxed and natural around her. But from many episodes of the novel it is clear that Bolkonsky could remain himself only with very few people. Now I want to ask myself a question. Why does Natasha, deeply loving Andrei, suddenly become interested in Anatoly Kuragin? Did she really not have enough spiritual insight and sensitivity to understand all the baseness and vulgarity of this person?

In my opinion, this is a fairly simple question, and Natasha should not be judged strictly. She has a changeable character. Tolstoy does not try to idealize his beloved heroine: Natasha is a completely earthly person who is not alien to everything worldly. Her heart is characterized by simplicity, openness, spontaneity, amorousness, and gullibility.

Natasha was a mystery to herself. Sometimes she didn’t think about what she was doing, but opened up to her feelings, opening up her naked soul. But true love still won and woke up in Natasha’s soul a little later. She realized that the one whom she idolized, whom she admired, who was dear to her, lived in her heart all this time. It was a joyful and new feeling that absorbed Natasha entirely, bringing her back to life. It seems to me that Pierre played a significant role in this “return”. She understood and realized her guilt before Andrei, and therefore in the last days of his life she took care of him so tenderly and reverently. Prince Andrei died, but Natasha remained to live, and in my opinion, her future life was wonderful. She was able to experience great love, create a wonderful family, finding peace of mind in it.

Natasha Rostova loved her family and children very much. So what if the old fire in her died out? She gave it to her loved ones, giving others the opportunity to warm themselves by this fire.
This is the story of these two heroes, about whom we learned from the pages of L. N. Tolstoy’s great novel “War and Peace.”

Why did Prince Andrei forgive Natasha at the beginning? and got the best answer

Answer from Oriy Polyakov[guru]
"He was too good for that.
peace."
Natasha Rostova
How many times have we wondered why L.N.
Tolstoy chose such a fate for one of his main characters in the novel -
epic "War and Peace", Prince Andrei Bolkonsky - to die at thirty
with a little age, when, it would seem, everything in life is just beginning?
At the fatal moment of his mortal wound, Prince Andrei experiences
the last, passionate and painful impulse towards earthly life: “completely
With a new, envious glance” he looks “at the grass and wormwood.” And than,
already on a stretcher, he thinks: “Why was I so sorry to part with
life? There was something in this life that I did not understand and do not understand.”
Feeling the approaching end, a person wants to live his whole life in a moment,
wants to find out what awaits him there, at the end of it, because there is so little left
time...
Now before us is a completely different Prince Andrei, and for the rest
the time allotted to him, he has to go the whole way, as if
be reborn.
In the dying Prince Andrei, heaven and earth, death and
life with alternating predominance are now fighting each other. This
the struggle manifests itself in two forms of love: one is earthly, reverent and
warm love for Natasha, for Natasha alone. And as soon as such love
awakens in him, hatred flares up for his rival Anatoly and the prince
Andrei feels that he is unable to forgive him. The other one is perfect
love for all people, coldish and extraterrestrial. As soon as this love
penetrates him, the prince feels detachment from life, liberation
and moving away from it.
And here comes the fight
ends with the victory of ideal love - Prince Andrei dies. Means,
the “weightless” surrender to death turned out to be much easier for him than
connection of two principles. Self-awareness awoke in him, he remained outside
peace. Perhaps it is no coincidence that death itself is a line phenomenon in the novel
almost not allotted: for Prince Andrey, death did not come unexpectedly, it
didn’t creep up - he was waiting for her for a long time, preparing for her. Earth, to
to which Prince Andrei passionately reached out at the fateful moment, never
fell into his hands, floated away, leaving a feeling of alarm in his soul
bewilderment, an unsolved mystery.
The spiritual quest of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky had a perfectly selected
Tolstoy's outcome: one of his favorite heroes was awarded such an inner
wealth, that there is no other way to live with it than to choose death (protection), and not
find. The author did not wipe Prince Andrei off the face of the earth, no! He gave his
the hero has a benefit that he could not refuse; in return, Prince Andrei left
The world always warms the light of your love.
Briefly: before his death, Andrei understood the meaning of life and forgave Natasha, because he loved all his life and dying, he could not help but forgive.

Classic lovers' names
have long become household names: Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Dante
and Beatrice, Petrarch and Loire... This list can be continued, but it’s better to think about it
about the very essence of love. The mystery of people's attraction to each other has long intrigued
philosophers, but hardly anyone has a clear definition of this great feeling,
which rules the world. “Let’s talk about the strangeness of love,” he invited to conversation
his friend, poet Wilhelm Kuchelbecker A.S. Pushkin. To love lyrics
Pushkin himself does not have unhappy love, because it is perceived
to them as an insight, as an awakening of creative forces, as a source of inspiration:

And the heart beats in ecstasy,
And for him they rose again:
AND
deity and inspiration
And life, and tears, and love.

But I will
talk about the love of two literary heroes who have become firmly entrenched in consciousness
reader of three centuries XIX and XXI.

The famous poet Voznesensky has
these lines:

Times are not forever
Monarchs and kings,
And eternal
names - Natasha
And Andrey.

So, Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky.
The young countess and the thirty-year-old prince, who managed to fight, become widowed, and have
a young son who successfully manages his estate, but does not want to serve anywhere.
Their first meeting takes place on the estate of Count Rostov, Otradnoye. First the prince
sees a strangely thin girl in a yellow chintz dress, then, remaining
spend the night in the Otradnensky house of the Rostovs, hears her enthusiastic voice saying
about the beauty of a moonlit night. The voice comes from somewhere above, and the prince
Andrei, enchanted by him, falls asleep with a feeling of “young desires and hopes.” During the day
there is still a meeting between the prince and the oak tree on which young foliage has blossomed,
and all together: spring, the awakening of nature, a girl loving a moonlit night -
They tell the prince that “life is not over at thirty-one.”

The second meeting - at the ball of Catherine’s nobleman in St. Petersburg,
on New Year's Eve. An entire chapter is devoted to the Rostov family’s gatherings for this ball.
It is no coincidence that Natasha is fussing so much, preparing for this important event, because
she will have a meeting with the brilliant youth of St. Petersburg: “Pierre promised to be at the ball
and introduce her gentlemen.”

As for Prince Andrei, for him
This is a way out into the big world after a long absence. Here he is beautiful, elegant,
in a white colonel's uniform approaches Countess Rostova and politely invites
to the dance. “...As soon as he hugged this thin, agile figure, she began to move
so close to him and smiled so close to him, the wine struck her charms
in his head." This is the beginning of love. Both Natasha and Andrey will remember for a long time later
this moment. Acquaintance, visits of Prince Andrei, engagement, which was decided
not to disclose, meeting of the Rostovs with Prince Bolkonsky, who insulted his son’s bride
by his behavior, separation from the groom, because the old prince set the condition:
the wedding was supposed to take place in a year - there is hardly any need to retell what happened
further. It is not surprising that the young bride could not withstand such a test
Prince Andrey. It was not for nothing that he granted her freedom, despite the engagement.

On
At first glance, Natasha can be accused of frivolity,
illegibility, emptiness, because she is carried away by a completely stupid person,
unscrupulous and insignificant. But everything is far from so simple. Love is the main thing
content of Natasha's life. She loves all the people around her, and they pay
she is reciprocated. In the atmosphere where she grew up there is no place for meanness,
betrayal, deceit. Without love, life seems devoid of any meaning to her,
and Prince Andrei is far away.

The brilliant cavalry guard Anatol Kuragin says
she knows what her ears want to hear and what her soul will open up to. Beats extinguished
the heart is dizzy, and happiness seems “so possible, so close.”
But the illusions soon dissipate not only because the escape with Anatole failed.
A vile deception is revealed: Prince Kuragin has been married for a long time, and the story with the Countess
Rostova is another adventure for him. The world is collapsing in Natasha's eyes, her illness
after separation from Prince Andrei, it is very strong and lasting. And to the smart one
and for some reason the efficient Bolkonsky lacks the necessary sensitivity to
understand and forgive your bride. Understanding will come to him over time, but he needs
first go through war, get wounded and undergo purification through suffering. When
During the last meeting with the wounded Andrei, Natasha kneels before him
and asks for forgiveness, he looks at her in surprise and asks: For what?
The young Countess of Rostov faithfully and carefully looks after her loved one.
The prince's suffering also becomes her suffering. There is no sacrifice here and no
martyrdom.

True love can overcome everything, it is ready
endure all tests. The death of Andrei Bolkonsky inevitably suggests
about the monstrous nature of the troops who kill the most worthy. Love and death,
unfortunately, they walk side by side, hand in hand - this is the tragic pattern of existence,
classical literature never sins against the truth, no matter how bitter
she was not.

Why did Prince Andrei forgive Natasha at the beginning? and got the best answer

Answer from Oriy Polyakov[guru]
"He was too good for that.
peace."
Natasha Rostova
How many times have we wondered why L.N.
Tolstoy chose such a fate for one of his main characters in the novel -
epic "War and Peace", Prince Andrei Bolkonsky - to die at thirty
with a little age, when, it would seem, everything in life is just beginning?
At the fatal moment of his mortal wound, Prince Andrei experiences
the last, passionate and painful impulse towards earthly life: “completely
With a new, envious glance” he looks “at the grass and wormwood.” And than,
already on a stretcher, he thinks: “Why was I so sorry to part with
life? There was something in this life that I did not understand and do not understand.”
Feeling the approaching end, a person wants to live his whole life in a moment,
wants to find out what awaits him there, at the end of it, because there is so little left
time...
Now before us is a completely different Prince Andrei, and for the rest
the time allotted to him, he has to go the whole way, as if
be reborn.
In the dying Prince Andrei, heaven and earth, death and
life with alternating predominance are now fighting each other. This
the struggle manifests itself in two forms of love: one is earthly, reverent and
warm love for Natasha, for Natasha alone. And as soon as such love
awakens in him, hatred flares up for his rival Anatoly and the prince
Andrei feels that he is unable to forgive him. The other one is perfect
love for all people, coldish and extraterrestrial. As soon as this love
penetrates him, the prince feels detachment from life, liberation
and moving away from it.
And here comes the fight
ends with the victory of ideal love - Prince Andrei dies. Means,
the “weightless” surrender to death turned out to be much easier for him than
connection of two principles. Self-awareness awoke in him, he remained outside
peace. Perhaps it is no coincidence that death itself is a line phenomenon in the novel
almost not allotted: for Prince Andrey, death did not come unexpectedly, it
didn’t creep up - he was waiting for her for a long time, preparing for her. Earth, to
to which Prince Andrei passionately reached out at the fateful moment, never
fell into his hands, floated away, leaving a feeling of alarm in his soul
bewilderment, an unsolved mystery.
The spiritual quest of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky had a perfectly selected
Tolstoy's outcome: one of his favorite heroes was awarded such an inner
wealth, that there is no other way to live with it than to choose death (protection), and not
find. The author did not wipe Prince Andrei off the face of the earth, no! He gave his
the hero has a benefit that he could not refuse; in return, Prince Andrei left
The world always warms the light of your love.
Briefly: before his death, Andrei understood the meaning of life and forgave Natasha, because he loved all his life and dying, he could not help but forgive.

The epochal work “War and Peace” reveals to the reader not only real pictures of historical events of the first quarter of the 19th century in Russia, but also reflects a wide palette of diversity of relationships between people. Tolstoy's novel can safely be called a work of ideas, the value and objectivity of which is still relevant today. One of the problems that is raised in the work is the analysis of the essence of the concept of love. In the work, the author addresses the issues of forgiveness of infidelity, self-sacrifice for the sake of a loved one and many others, united by the theme of love. The main love story, which personifies the ideal of sincere feeling, is reflected in the relationship between Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky in Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace.”

Ideals of love and family relationships

According to Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, the concepts of love and marriage in a prose work are somewhat delimited. Using the example of the relationship between Pierre and Natasha, the writer personifies in the novel the ideal of true family happiness, harmony of relationships between people, trust, calm and confidence in a marital union. The idea of ​​simple human happiness and finding harmony in simplicity is fundamental in the work of Lev Nikolaevich and is realized through the depiction of the Bezukhov family relationships.

The relationship between Natasha and Andrey symbolizes the love line of the novel. Between them there is not a shadow of those concepts that the author idealizes at the end of the work using the example of the Bezukhov family. This is precisely what suggests that the concept of love and family for Tolstoy is somewhat different. Family gives a person confidence, stability and calm happiness. Love, according to Tolstoy, can both inspire and destroy a personality, change its inner world, attitude towards others and completely influence the path of life. It was these feelings that affected the heroes Andrei and Natasha. Their relationship is far from ideal, but it personifies the symbol of true love in the novel War and Peace.

Reflection of the war on people's lives

Using the example of the relationship between Bolkonsky and Natasha, the author depicts one of the tragic consequences of such a phenomenon as war. If it weren’t for Andrei’s participation in hostilities and his injury during the Battle of Borodino, perhaps these heroes would have become the personification not only of true love in the novel, but also could have symbolized the ideal of family. However, according to Tolstoy's plan, the heroes were not given such a chance. In the novel “War and Peace,” the love of Natasha and Andrei, which ended in the death of Bolkonsky, is one of the plot and ideological devices for depicting the drama and tragedy of war.

Relationship history

The meeting of these heroes changed the lives of both of them. In the heart of the gloomy, boring, unsmiling and disillusioned Andrei with life, society and love, faith in beauty, the desire to live and be happy were revived. The heart of a lively and sensual Natasha, open to new emotions and feelings, also could not resist the fateful meeting, and was given to Andrey. They fell in love with each other almost at first sight. Their engagement became a logical continuation of a romantic acquaintance that inspired Andrei and gave him faith in a new life.

How painful his disappointment in his chosen one became when Natasha, inexperienced and ignorant of the laws of life and human cruelty, could not resist the temptations of social life and tainted her pure feeling for Andrei with her passion for Anatoly Kuragin. “Natasha didn’t sleep all night; she was tormented by an insoluble question: who did she love: Anatoly or Prince Andrei? Despite his strong feelings for Natasha, Andrei cannot forgive her for this betrayal. “And of all the people, I have never loved or hated anyone more than her,” he says to his friend Pierre.

The tragedy of the ending is the essence of the author's intention

The collapse of hopes and life plans leads him to real despair. This feeling did not escape poor Natasha, who, realizing her mistake, reproaches and torments herself for the pain she caused to her loved one. However, Tolstoy decided to give his suffering heroes one last moment of happiness. After being wounded at the Battle of Borodino, Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha meet in the hospital. The old feeling flares up with much greater force. However, the cruelty of reality does not allow the heroes to be together due to Andrei’s serious injury. The author only gives Andrey the opportunity to spend his last days next to the woman he loves.

The importance of the ability to forgive and be forgiven

This plot plan is implemented by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy with the aim of proclaiming the idea of ​​​​the importance of the ability to forgive and earn forgiveness. Despite the tragic events that separated the young people, they carried this feeling until the end of their lives. The dynamic and not always ideal relationship of these characters in the novel “War and Peace” is another aspect of the writer’s ideological plan. Despite the fact that in the novel “War and Peace” Bolkonsky and Natasha personify the ideal of a love relationship, they are quite close to real life, in which there is a place for misunderstandings, resentments, betrayals and even hatred. The love story of Andrei and Natasha, the author deliberately gives them an imperfect shade. The episode associated with the betrayal of the bride and the separation of the characters give special realism to both the heroes of the work and the entire novel.

Describing the relationship between Andrei and Natasha, the author demonstrates that the reader faces ordinary people who can make a mistake, be it betrayal, pride or hatred. Thanks to this depiction of the relationship between the main characters of the love story of the epic novel, the reader gains the opportunity to experience a real life story, believe and empathize with the characters, feel all the tragedy and injustice of such a social phenomenon as war, which is one of the main ideas of the work and essay on the topic: “Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky in the novel “War and Peace”.

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