War and Peace

“Influence in society, however, is capital which has to be economized if it is to last.” 

Prince Vasili is a scheming man and as much of a strategist as the most experienced general. His battlefield is the parties and dinners of the Saint Petersburg social scene. Vasili is primarily concerned with advancing his family’s fortunes and extending their interest, so he views his children as commodities who should marry whoever most is most useful. While he is not a likable man, Vasili has an innate understanding of how society and influence function in 19th-century Russia.

“The dying man lay as lifeless and immovable as before.” 

Pierre’s dying father, Count Bezukhov, is part of the old world that will be swept away by the war with France—“lifeless and immovable” (86). Just as Count Bezukhov’s fortune will transfer to Pierre, the responsibly of managing the country will fall to a new generation.

“We are childwen of the dust…but one falls in love and one is a God, one is pua’ as on the fihst day of cweation.” 

Denisov’s speech impediment adds an air of absurdity to his high-minded statements. The military officer discusses the nature of the universe, but his inability to pronounce certain letters attracts the attention of his audience more than his meaning. However, this distraction also benefits Denisov as he waxes philosophical about the ways love disarms those who fall victim to it.

“You fear and yet long to cross that line, and know that sooner or later it must be crossed and you will have to find out what is there, just as you will inevitably have to learn what lies on the other side of death.” 

Anyone who comes face-to-face with the enemy for the first time feels confusion, excitement, fear, and a sense of foreboding. Nikolai and Andrei come to understand the desperation to know what follows death. Andrei dies with a premonition of peace and resignation, while Nikolai returns to the world with new self-knowledge.

“This is a mob of scoundrels and not an army.” 

Andrei quickly becomes disillusioned with life in the army. He dreams of victory and glory, but the reality of military life leaves him cold. The “mob of scoundrels” (177) whom he commands and fights alongside are not the glorious, honorable men he expected to meet. Andrei’s experiences reveal the hollowness of ideals like honor and glory.

“He was merely a man of the world who had got on and to whom getting on had become a habit.” 

Prince Vasili has made a career out of “getting on” (214)—drifting from party to party, expanding his fortunes. He schemes to marry his children to suitable partners, and he plots to extract as much money as possible from men like Pierre.

“Only when Prince Andrei was gone did Rostov think of what he ought to have said.” 

Nikolai lacks the intelligence and verbosity to convey his ideas. After a meeting with the clever, witty Andrei, Nikolai is filled with regret. His mind races to invent all the witty remarks he should have made. The opportunity is lost, so Nikolai can only dwell on his failure. Like so many of Nikolai’s best ideas, these remarks are lost forever and remain unappreciated.

“Looking into Napoleon’s eyes Prince Andrei thought of the insignificance of greatness, the unimportance of life which no one could understand, and the still greater unimportance of death, the meaning of which no one alive could understand or explain.”

Napoleon is the driving force of the plot. His invasions of Austria and Russia motivate all the characters’ stories. He is hailed as a genius and one of the greatest tacticians of all time. However, when Andrei meets Napoleon, he discovers that the French emperor is just another man. Andrei is unimpressed, and his disappointment curdles into hopelessness. If a man as important as Napoleon is so underwhelming, Andrei cannot imagine why anyone would bother with anything.

“At the very instant he did this and uttered those words Pierre felt that the question of his wife’s guilt which had been tormenting him the whole day, was finally and indubitably answered in the affirmative.” 

Pierre’s mind ruminates and obsesses. The rumors of his wife’s affair torment him because he cannot help but imagine all the worst possibilities. These intrusive thoughts consume him so much that he challenges an experienced soldier to a duel. However, there is some relief in Helene’s affair only existing as a figment of Pierre’s imagination. As soon as Pierre issues the challenge, he realizes that she really did cheat on him—speaking his thoughts aloud dispels any doubt and cements the truth of his marriage.

“Prince Andrei felt that something gave way in his soul, and that he was guilty of a sin he could neither remedy nor forget.” 

The expression on Lisa’s face when she dies haunts Andrei because there is no way for him to repair the way he treated his wife. The guilt will eat at him until he can no longer stand to see his son, who only reminds Andrei of Lisa.

“He went over his vices in his mind not knowing to which of them to give the pre-eminence.” 

Pierre joins the Freemasons and takes the group very seriously. Many of the other members view the Freemasons as a social club and a way to meet with their friends and members of their social class. Pierre does not even entertain this possibility. When a Freemason asks him to think about his most serious sin, Pierre thinks long and hard about his past. Other men would give a simple, unconsidered answer, but Pierre dwells on the idea. His myopic inability to read the room makes his membership a severe disappointment.

“I’m alive; that is not my fault, so I must live out my life as best I can, without hurting others.” 

Pierre’s reunion with Andrei is cold and depressing. Pierre, a lively and intelligent man who enjoys conversation, finds that his friend has been scarred and broken by his experiences in the war. Andrei no longer dreams of glory. Instead, the best he can manage is survival while not negatively affecting anyone else’s life.

The regiment was also a home, and as unalterably dear and precious as his parents’ house.” 

Nikolai craves domestic comfort. He does not need the lavish furniture or the expensive food of his family home, but he needs the warmth and affection of those around him. Soon, Nikolai discovers that the military is a second home. The friendship and the solidarity of his fellow soldiers satisfies his desire for home. The atmosphere of his army unit makes him feel safe and loved.

“It is not enough for me to know what I have in me—everyone must know it: Pierre, and that young girl who wanted to fly away into the sky, everyone must know me, so that my life may not be lived for myself alone while others live so apart from it, but so that it may be reflected in them all, and they and I may live in harmony.”

The lingering effects of Lisa’s death and the horrors of war can no longer hold Andrei back from living his life. Over the course of many chapters, Andrei has been reduced to a shell of a man. The prospect of loving Natasha, however, inspires him to return from the brink of his depression. The experience in the Rostov home awakens Andrei and rejuvenates his spirits. Unfortunately, his happiness will not last.

“He felt astonished that he could have spent so much time on such useless work” 

Andrei and Pierre are more alike than they realize. Even when they are far apart and engaged in very different work, both men throw themselves completely into their new obsessions. Andrei loved the military, estate management, and now Natasha, just as Pierre dedicates himself to the Freemasons and the idea that he must kill Napoleon. Both men become so wrapped up in their ideas that they cannot examine their thoughts objectively. Only when they pause and reflect can Pierre and Andrei realize the errors of their ways.

“But, Maman, suppose I loved a girl who has no fortune, would you expect me to sacrifice my feelings and my honor for the sake of money?”

Nikolai’s life is a struggle between his honor and his emotions. He feels a responsibility to his family, and he desperately wants to find a way to pay off the family’s debts, but he also sees himself as the ideal aristocratic man. The thought of marrying a random rich woman does not appeal to him because he has promised himself to the penniless Sonya, a childhood love. He must decide between keeping his promise to Sonya, and thus satisfying personal honor, or sacrificing his individual honor for the sake of family duty.

“And this life suddenly seemed to Pierre unexpectedly loathsome.”

Pierre struggles to confront his feelings. He has loved Natasha Rostov for a long time, and when she becomes engaged to his best friend, Pierre does not know how to deal with heartbreak. His books and education provide no help. Pierre’s emotions do not conform to the logical order that he has read about for his entire life. The “unexpectedly loathsome” (574) nature of life is felt by a man who has learned everything from books and very little from actual experiences.

“Apart from the advantage he derived from Anatole, the very process of dominating another’s will was in itself a pleasure, a habit, and a necessity to Dolokhov.” 

Dolokhov is neither rich nor an aristocrat, so he feels the need to prove himself in other ways. Dolokhov plays cards because gambling allows him to demonstrate his worth and illustrate why he has just as much value and importance as other people. He feels the need to dominate his social peers because he feels inadequate and unwelcome.

“Not only does a good army commander not need any special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes—love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic inquiring doubt.” 

Andrei attends a generals’ meeting and reflects on the nature of command. The idea of great men or important individuals is irrelevant. Instead, history moves through the random actions of countless individuals. Thus, the decisions and orders issued in the meeting matter less than the psychological state of the troops. The best commanders and officers should not strive to be anything other than the best people.

“She was also happy because she had someone to adore her: the adoration of others was a lubricant the wheels of her machine needed to make them run freely.” 

Natasha craves affection. She grew up as a pretty, likable young woman, and each of her relationships is predicated on the attention she receives. Andrei was the first man to really dance with her, Anatole stared at her with lust in his eyes, and Pierre provides solace and empathy when she needs it most. These three different forms of male affection share a common factor: Natasha is the central figure in all of them. For Natasha, the adoration of others is the validation she craves.

“Most of the people at that time paid no attention to the general progress of events but were guided only by their private interests, and they were the very people whose activities at that period were most useful.” 

The novel is epic, telling the story of the French invasion of Russia and the lives thrown into chaos during this period. However, the narrator accepts that the true scale of the story is impossible to convey. No book could ever hope to contain every single strand of history. It’s no wonder that most people ignore the sweeping tides of history and focus on their own lives.

“To admit the possibility of a future seemed to them to insult his memory.”

Marya and Natasha spend their days mourning Andrei and refusing to speculate on their future because their emotions belong to a time when he was still alive. Though his death brings them together, they cannot bring themselves to mention him. Their pain is shared but raw. The unspoken grief between the two women becomes a lifelong bond.

“By being ruined I have become much richer.”

Pierre begins the story as a poor illegitimate son and becomes one of the wealthiest bachelors in Russia. However, the idea of having money only makes him more anxious. After the sack of Moscow and the death of Helene, Pierre loses most of his fortune. The experience teaches him that he does not care for money. He cares far more for the knowledge and experience that money provides.