War And Peace (1262 words)

War And PeaceWar and Peace
The famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace in 1865. It is a story about the lives of the Russian royal family from 1805 to 1815. This book depicts things and events that happened during the war. The novel describes the war with Napoleon in which many countries were involved such as Russia, Austrian, Prussia, Spain, Sweden, and Britain. However, the novel mainly focuses on Russia. It reflects the different views and participation in the war of Russian aristocracy.
Showing the war, Tolstoy describes Napoleon’s attack on Russia, the battle of Borodino, the slow retrieval of the Russian army, the conquest of Moscow by Napoleon, the fire in Moscow, and the retrieval of Napoleon’s army during a deadly winter. Napoleon had to retreat from Russia under attacks by Russian peasants and horsemen on those who fell behind. His army also suffers from cold and hunger, since the Russians destroyed all food supplies. The takeover of Moscow by Napoleon proved to be useless, and in the long run, destroyed a large part of his army.

Alongside with these historical events, Tolstoy describes the different classes of Russian society in the terms of their participation in the war and what kind of an impact war had on their lives. In the beginning of the novel, the Russian aristocratic class, which was in the czar’s circle, wanted Russia to participate in the war. They wanted a quick victory and pride for the Russian nobility. They did not anticipate that the war would destroy homes, agriculture, and take many Russian lives.
There are the good people, and of course, the bad. The good people being Natasha Rostov, a teenage girl who grows and matures throughout the book and Pierre Bezuhov, the son of Kirill Vladmirovitch Bezuhov, who speaks much of the novel expressing his purpose on earth. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the leader of the Bolkonsky family and a great war hero.
The bad people are the protagonists themselves, as they torment themselves and Napoleon Bonaparte, (who, by some, is believed to be an impostor) the emperor and military leader of France, whom is bent on world domination. The Secondary characters are the families of Bolkonsky and Kuragin, Anna Pavolvna, a famous St. Petersburg socialite and Kutuzof, the military leader of the Russian forces.

This class is shown in Anna Pavlova Sharer’s salon, with its upper class aristocracy, who talk only in French, viewing the Russian language as uncivilized and useful only for peasants. They adopted French culture and wear French style clothing, and at the same time they want to fight Napoleon. However, the majority of this class doesn’t want to participate themselves in the war, but want to win the war with the hands of the peasants. These aristocrats, despite their high education and power, will do nothing to help win the war. They live like parasites on the body of Russia’s society. This is how Tolstoy describes this class in general, but he also depicts two representatives of this upper class, Andrew Bolkonsky and Pierre Bisuhov, who were the more intellectual ones, and whose lives and views of war and life changed as the result of the war.

Depicting the Rostov family, who were also wealthy nobles, but were not in the czar’s circle and lived in rural parts of Russia, Tolstoy showed a typical Russian family who were devoted to their country and Russian traditions. All of Tolstoy’s sympathy is on their side and he presents them in a positive way. They sing Russian folklore, which the higher aristocrats would not dream of doing. Depicting this class, Tolstoy describes simple and eternal problems such as birth, love, forgiveness, and death.

The main national characteristics are in the Russian peasants. Through these people, who hate war, we are shown that they are forced to participate in the war because the have no other choice. They show real heroism during war. Captain Tushin and a soldier, Timohin, give their lives to save their army. Historical figures such as Napoleon and Kutuzov oppose the views of the aristocratic class in the czar’s circle. This class of people didn’t like Kutuzov, who became the general of the Russian army. They thought he was too