In the novel War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov, the author's favorite character, was married twice. His first wife was the secular beauty Helen, the second - Natasha Rostova. As for Pierre's second marriage, everything is clear here: Leo Tolstoy connects two of his favorite heroes, for which he even had to sacrifice Prince Andrei, Natasha's first fiance. In this case, the riddle appears at the very end of the novel, when Natasha becomes a completely different person who has little in common with the girl Pierre Bezukhov was in love with: why is Pierre still in love with Natasha and considers her a wonderful wife?

But the first marriage is a mystery from the very beginning. How could Pierre, a deep, thinking and sensitive man, marry socialite for which the author does not have a single kind word? Why does Tolstoy need this marriage, what does this plot twist bring to the novel "War and Peace"? There are a lot of mysteries here, as we see, let's try to find clues for them.

Let us recall the circumstances of Pierre's marriages. When Pierre became a rich young man and an enviable groom, the cunning Prince Vasily decided to marry him to his daughter Helen. This turned out to be a simple matter, since Helen was unusually beautiful, and Pierre was simple-minded, naive and inexperienced. As a matchmaker, Prince Vasily used his friend Anna Pavlovna Sherer. Anna Pavlovna showed Pierre that his wedding with Helen already seems inevitable and imminent to everyone, and he took it for granted.

So, Pierre is married. His wife Helen was not smart, she had no soul. She had only beauty and the ability to show herself smart in society and in general perfect woman. All these features are negative for Tolstoy. Beautiful characters are unloved by the author: in Pierre, Natasha, Kutuzov some kind of ugliness is often emphasized, and at the same time they are loved by Tolstoy; Helen, Alexander I, Napoleon, Dolokhov - vice versa. The ability to show oneself in society also does not arouse sympathy for the hero in the author: Tolstoy despised everything artificial, life, in his opinion, should be natural; a vivid example of this is Pierre's second wife Natasha.

Already before the wedding with Helen, Pierre “felt that the wedding was not good for some reason, but he knew what it would be.” Why does the author need this marriage? Pierre's life consists of constant ups and downs, crises and even periods. If Pierre had not married, had not quarreled and had not been forced to flee from Helen to Petersburg, he would not have become a Freemason, that is, a significant and important period of his life would have disappeared. In addition, then he would not be able to “bring to life” Prince Andrei on the ferry. I will not list further consequences, it is already clear that the first marriage is an important plot for the novel.

I will only add that the first marriage did not allow Pierre to decide important issue his life: he never found a family. He was illegitimate son, did not have a normal relationship with his parents, that is, he did not have a family in childhood. Marrying Helen, he again remained single. That's who did not become a friend to Pierre, their lives practically did not intersect.

Now let's move on to Pierre's marriage to Natasha Rostova. They had known each other since childhood and always had warm feelings for each other. Pierre loved Natasha for a long time and almost confessed this to her after she wanted to run away with Anatole Kuragin (the brother of Pierre's wife) and everyone condemned her for this. Pierre, out of the kindness of character, always tried to justify the actions of other people. Then he did not dare to confess, since she was his bride best friend, Prince Andrei, and he himself was formally married.

In both cases, other people helped him to confess his love and marry: in the first marriage, Prince Vasily and Anna Pavlovna Sherer, in the second, Princess Marya. However, the reality was different. Prince Vasily simply forced Pierre to do this, and Pierre himself asked Princess Marya to help him.

Although a lot of time passed between the first and second marriages, Pierre remained an indecisive person. True, his indecision in the first case was due to the fact that he did not want to marry, he simply considered himself obliged to do so. In the second case, on the contrary, he loved Natasha so much that he could not imagine that he was reciprocated: Pierre even believed that “he is a man, just a man”, and Natasha is “completely different, higher”. For Pierre, this indecision, lack of faith in himself were characteristic features.

In the fourth volume of the novel, L. N. Tolstoy describes Pierre’s feelings before the matchmaking and marriage to Natasha: “In Pierre’s soul, nothing similar happened now to what happened in her in similar circumstances of his matchmaking with Helen. He did not repeat, as then, with painful shame, the words spoken by him, he did not say to himself: “Ah, why did I not say this, and why, why did I say then “I love you”?” Now, on the contrary, he repeated every word of hers, his own, in his imagination with all the details of her face, smile, and did not want to subtract or add anything, he only wanted to repeat. There was no doubt whether what he had done was good or bad - now there was not even a shadow.

It was difficult to find such opposite wives as Helen and Natasha. One is the personification of everything artificial, cold, frozen (“marble beauty”). Helen's face is a beautiful mask that does not reflect a single feeling, if she could experience any feelings at all. Helen's smile expressed nothing at all, it was the smile of a statue. On the contrary, Natasha is the very embodiment of life, variability, impermanence. It is no coincidence that the mother found that there was too much of something in her that would not allow her to be happy. If Helen lacks life, then Natasha has even too much life. It was from here that the wild things she sometimes did. There is no doubt that Helen is quite capable of bad deeds, it was not for nothing that she almost openly cheated on Pierre, but she managed to observe social decency, which are alien to the very nature of Natasha and Pierre.

However, with all the differences, there are similarities between Helen and Natasha. They both seem to be lower than Pierre in their spiritual and mental qualities: both were not as smart and deep as he was.

Natasha completely sank, becoming a female from a beautiful young woman (that's what Tolstoy calls her in the epilogue of the novel). Helen turns readers away with her emptiness, callousness. Both wives were inferior in their human qualities to Pierre, an amazing man, full of kindness, intelligence, nobility. Everything is clear with Helen - marrying her was a huge mistake for Pierre, he realized this very quickly. As for Natasha, everything is more complicated here. Pierre married her for love and, apparently, was quite happy in family life. He had children, but it seems to me that Nikolenka Bolkonsky was spiritually closer to them than Pierre. I think that the only woman, who in the novel is equal in quality to Pierre, was Princess Marya. It is probably no coincidence that she, like Pierre, married a man who is difficult to compare with her in terms of her spiritual and mental qualities. Perhaps such unequal marriages generally characteristic of outstanding people.

The hero of the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace" (1863 1869). The prototypes of the image of P.B. the Decembrists who returned from Siberia served, whose life gave Tolstoy the material for the original idea, which gradually transformed into an epic about ... ... literary heroes

pierre- a, m. Pierre. Gallicized Russian male name Peter. Pierre Bezukhov, the hero of L. Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. It's such a relief, Pierre, to see you here with Tata. Borovskaja Dvoryan. daughter 314. And I do not want to see his governor in my house ... Historical dictionary gallicisms of the Russian language

- ... Wikipedia

Sergei Bondarchuk as Pierre Bezukhov Pyotr Kirillovich (Pierre) Bezukhov is one of the central characters in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. The illegitimate son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov (his prototype is Chancellor Russian Empire Count Bezborodko) ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see War and peace (meanings). War and Peace ... Wikipedia

War and peace ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see War and peace (meanings). Opera War and Peace Composer Sergei Prokofiev Libretto author(s) Sergei Prokofiev, Mira Mendelssohn Prokofiev ... Wikipedia

The famous writer, who has reached an unprecedented level in the history of literature of the 19th century. glory. In his face, a great artist and a great moralist were powerfully united. T.'s personal life, his steadfastness, indefatigability, responsiveness, animation in defending ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

Tolstoy L. N. TOLSTOY Lev Nikolaevich (1828 1910). I. Biography. R. in Yasnaya Polyana, ex. Tula lips. He came from an old noble family. Grandfather T., Count Ilya Andreevich (prototype of I. A. Rostov from "War and Peace"), went bankrupt by the end of his life. ... ... Literary Encyclopedia

Books

• Russian Literature and Psychoanalysis, Rancourt-Laferrier D.. Daniel Rancourt-Laferrier - American literary critic, Russianist. His book includes works different years dedicated to our most famous classic writers: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, ...
• War and Peace. Volume 4 (MP3 audiobook), L. N. Tolstoy. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is a Russian writer, a classic of Russian and world literature. "War and Peace" - the world-famous epic novel by L. N. Tolstoy - neither in its scale, nor in its ...

PIERRE BEZUKHOV

PIERRE BEZUKHOV - the hero of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869). The prototypes of the image of P.B. the Decembrists who returned from Siberia served, whose life gave Tolstoy material for the original plan, which gradually transformed into an epic about Patriotic war 1812. Similar to P.B. the character is already in the original plan of the story about the Decembrist Pyotr Ivanovich Labazov, who returned from Siberia. While working on sketches and early edition novel Tolstoy changed many names to the future P.B. (Prince Kushnev, Arkady Bezukhy, Pyotr Ivanovich Medynsky). Almost unchanged (compared to the idea of ​​the novel) remained the main story line hero: from youthful carelessness to mature sophistication.

Peter Kirillovich Bezukhoe is the illegitimate son of a rich and noble Catherine's nobleman, recognized as the legitimate heir only after the death of his father. Until the age of 20, he was brought up abroad, having appeared in the world, he attracted attention by the absurdity of behavior and at the same time by the naturalness that distinguished him from his environment. Like his friend Andrei Bolkonsky, P.B. worships Napoleon, considering him a truly great figure of his time.

P.B. - an addicting nature, a person endowed with soft and weak character, kindness and gullibility, but at the same time subject to violent outbursts of anger (episodes of a quarrel and explanation with Helen after the duel; explanation with Anatole Kuragin after his attempt to take Natasha away). Good and reasonable intentions constantly come into conflict with the passions that overcome P.B., and often lead to big troubles, as in the case of the revelry in the company of Dolokhov and Kuragin, after which he was expelled from St. Petersburg.

Having become one of the richest people after the death of his father, heir to the title, P.B. again subjected to serious trials and temptations, as a result of the intrigues of Prince Vasily, marrying his daughter Helen, a secular beauty, an unintelligent and dissolute woman. This marriage makes the hero deeply unhappy, leading to a duel with Dolokhov, to a break with his wife. A penchant for philosophical reasoning reduces P.B. with a prominent Freemason Bazdeev and contributes to the passion for Freemasonry. P.B. begins to believe in the possibility of achieving perfection, in brotherly love between people. Under the influence of new thoughts for him, he tries to improve the life of his peasants, seeing the happiness of life in caring for others. However, due to its impracticality, it fails, becoming disillusioned with the very idea of ​​reorganizing peasant life.

The search for the content and meaning of being is accompanied by P.B. symbolic dreams (a dream about dogs-passions tormenting him; a dream seen after the Battle of Borodino under the impression of the last conversation with Prince Andrei and the battle itself). Property of the psyche of P.B. to transform thoughts that have not yet been sufficiently clarified by him into images of dreams is quite understandable emotional state hero, as well as his susceptibility (under the influence of Freemasonry) to philosophical and mystical moods. So, for example, P.B., who decided to kill Napoleon, calculates the mystical number of his and his own names.

In 1808 P.B. becomes the head of St. Petersburg Freemasonry and gradually, realizing the falsity of this movement, comes to disappointment in its ideals and participants. The most stressful period of the hero's life was on the eve and during the war of 1812. Through the eyes of P.B. readers of the novel are watching the famous comet of the 12th year, which foreshadowed unusual and terrible, according to common belief, events. The eve of the war is complicated for the hero by a clearly realized feeling of deep love for Natasha Rostova, in a conversation with whom he blurts out his feelings.

Having taken the events of the war to heart, having become disillusioned with his former idol Napoleon, P.B. goes to the Borodino field to observe the battle. He sees the unity of the defenders of Moscow, who want to "fall on" the enemy "with all the people." P.B. becomes a witness of a common prayer service before the icon of Smolensk Mother of God. Near Borodino, the last meeting of P.B. with Prince Andrei, expressing to him the cherished idea that the true understanding of life is where "they", ordinary Russian soldiers. It was on the Borodino field that P.B. for the first time, he feels a sense of unity with those around him, helping them during the battle.

In empty and burning Moscow, where the hero remains to kill his worst enemy and humanity, Napoleon, he becomes a witness to many horrors of war; trying to help people as much as possible (protects a woman, saves a child from fire), is captured as an "arsonist" and experiences terrible moments of waiting for death there, watching the execution of prisoners.

Captive for P.B. opens new world and a new meaning of existence: at first he realizes the impossibility of capturing not the body, but the living, immortal soul of man. In the same place, the hero meets Platon Karataev, as a result of communication with whom he comprehends, first intuitively, and then with reason, the people's worldview: love for life, awareness of oneself as part of the whole world. The real rapprochement with the people occurs with the hero precisely in captivity, when he least of all thinks about it, but turns out to be placed by fate in a position common with all the people. The formation of an unclear sensation into an understandable thought occurs in P.B. also in a dream (about the world - a living ball covered with drops of water), after waking up from which he is released from captivity, and he again flows into the general stream folk life as an active participant. Impressed by the meeting with Karataev, P.B., who previously “did not see the eternal and the infinite in anything”, learned to “see the eternal and the infinite in everything. And that eternal and infinite was God.”

After the end of the war, the death of Helen P.B. Meets Natasha again and marries her. In the epilogue, he is depicted as the happy father of the family, beloved and loving husband; a person who has found his place and purpose in life.

The general direction of development of the image of P.B. - movement towards rapprochement with the people's worldview, which occurs in the hero on the basis of a complex synthesis of intuitive, emotional and rational principles. That is why P.B. - the only hero epic novel, which turns out to be equally close to Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova and Platon Karataev, each of which is only one of these principles. The combination of the emotional and the rational in the perception of life was especially close to Tolstoy himself, therefore P.B. one of the author's favorite characters. Among other characters, many of which date back to the prototypes of the "family chronicle" of Tolstoy-Volkonsky, P.B. at first sight not marked by easily recognizable or autobiographical features. However, he, like Tolstoy himself, is inherent in the passion of Rousseau, the desire for rapprochement with the people, his internal development takes place in the struggle of the spiritual and intellectual beginning with the sensual, passionate. Thus, P.B. may well be put in a number of other heroes of the writer, who are distinguished by an analytical mindset and have biographical parallels with their creator.

Many features of P.B. allowed even contemporaries, as well as later researchers, to see in the hero as a character “snatched from life”, distinguished by its “Russian features”, characteristic of people of the 10-20s of the XIX century (fascination with Rousseauism, Freemasonry, French Revolution, Decembrist ideas), and the type of person of the 60s of the XIX century, who seems “wiser” than people of that generation. This view is also confirmed by a certain closeness of the spiritual development of P.B. to the philosophical and ethical searches of the author himself, the complexity of the intellectual and emotional life of the hero, the possibility of his correlation with the characters of Russian literature of the 1860s (for example, Raskolnikov from F.M. degree is directed at the denial of Napoleonism not only as villainy, but also as individualism in the highest degree manifestations.

According to the degree of embodiment in the hero of the main principles of life, the reflection of the patterns of the historical reality of the last century, the ability to “match” the emotional with the rational, the degree of closeness of the hero-nobleman with the common people, active participation in public life during the period of a historical turning point, the truthfulness of the reflection of the main direction of the spiritual development of the the author, correlation with the characters of other works of the writer and Russian literature of the XIX century P.B. may well be considered one of the most important characters in the work of Leo Tolstoy.

It seems that S.F. Bondarchuk most closely approached the understanding and successful implementation of the ideas embodied in the image of P.B. in his cinematic interpretation of the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy (1966-1967).

Lit .: Krasnov G.V. Pierre Bezukhov at war

// L.N. Tolstoy. Sat. articles. Gorky, 1960; Potapov I.A. On the historicism of the spiritual quest of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov in L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

//Volgograd Pedagogy, Inst. A.S. Serafimovich. Materials XXI scientific conference. Volgograd, 1966; Potapov I.A. Pierre Bezukhov in L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

//Materials of the IX scientific conference of literary critics of the Volga region. Penza, 1969.

E.V. Nikolaeva

literary heroes. - Academician. 2009 .

See what "PIERRE BEZUKHOV" is in other dictionaries:

Chancellor Alexander Andreyevich Bezborodko, a probable prototype of Pierre Bezukhov's father, Count Kirill Vladimirovich. Portrait by Austrian artist Johann Baptiste Lampi ... Wikipedia

pierre- a, m. Pierre. Gallicized Russian male name Peter. Pierre Bezukhov, the hero of L. Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. It's such a relief, Pierre, to see you here with Tata. Borovskaja Dvoryan. daughter 314. And I do not want to see his governor in my house ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

- ... Wikipedia

Sergei Bondarchuk as Pierre Bezukhov Pyotr Kirillovich (Pierre) Bezukhov is one of the central characters in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. The illegitimate son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov (his prototype is the Chancellor of the Russian Empire, Count Bezborodko) ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see War and peace (meanings). War and Peace ... Wikipedia

War and peace ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see War and peace (meanings). Opera War and Peace Composer Sergei Prokofiev Libretto author(s) Sergei Prokofiev, Mira Mendelssohn Prokofiev ... Wikipedia

Kirill BORUSYAK,
school number 57
10th grade, Moscow
(teacher -
Sergei Vladimirovich Volkov)

Two wives of Pierre Bezukhov

In the novel War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov, the author's favorite character, was married twice. His first wife was the secular beauty Helen, the second - Natasha Rostova. As for Pierre's second marriage, everything is clear here: Leo Tolstoy connects two of his favorite heroes, for which he even had to sacrifice Prince Andrei, Natasha's first fiance. In this case, the riddle appears at the very end of the novel, when Natasha becomes a completely different person who has little in common with the girl Pierre Bezukhov was in love with: why is Pierre still in love with Natasha and considers her a wonderful wife?

But the first marriage is a mystery from the very beginning. How could Pierre, a deep, thinking and sensitive man, marry a socialite for whom the author does not have a single kind word? Why does Tolstoy need this marriage, what does this plot twist bring to the novel "War and Peace"? There are a lot of mysteries here, as we see, let's try to find clues for them.

Let us recall the circumstances of Pierre's marriages. When Pierre became a rich young man and an enviable groom, the cunning Prince Vasily decided to marry him to his daughter Helen. This turned out to be a simple matter, since Helen was unusually beautiful, and Pierre was simple-minded, naive and inexperienced. As a matchmaker, Prince Vasily used his friend Anna Pavlovna Sherer. Anna Pavlovna showed Pierre that his wedding with Helen already seems inevitable and imminent to everyone, and he took it for granted.

So, Pierre is married. His wife Helen was not smart, she had no soul. She had only beauty and the ability to show herself in society as an intelligent and generally ideal woman. All these features are negative for Tolstoy. Beautiful characters are unloved by the author: in Pierre, Natasha, Kutuzov some kind of ugliness is often emphasized, and at the same time they are loved by Tolstoy; Helen, Alexander I, Napoleon, Dolokhov - vice versa. The ability to show oneself in society also does not arouse sympathy for the hero in the author: Tolstoy despised everything artificial, life, in his opinion, should be natural; a vivid example of this is Pierre's second wife Natasha.

Already before the wedding with Helen, Pierre “felt that the wedding was not good for some reason, but he knew what it would be.” Why does the author need this marriage? Pierre's life consists of constant ups and downs, crises and even periods. If Pierre had not married, had not quarreled and had not been forced to flee from Helen to Petersburg, he would not have become a Freemason, that is, a significant and important period of his life would have disappeared. In addition, then he would not be able to “bring to life” Prince Andrei on the ferry. I will not list further consequences, it is already clear that the first marriage is an important plot for the novel.

I will only add that the first marriage did not allow Pierre to solve an important problem in his life: he never found a family. After all, he was an illegitimate son, did not have normal relations with his parents, that is, he did not have a family in childhood. Marrying Helen, he again remained single. That's who did not become a friend to Pierre, their lives practically did not intersect.

Now let's move on to Pierre's marriage to Natasha Rostova. They had known each other since childhood and always had warm feelings for each other. Pierre loved Natasha for a long time and almost confessed this to her after she wanted to run away with Anatole Kuragin (the brother of Pierre's wife) and everyone condemned her for this. Pierre, out of the kindness of character, always tried to justify the actions of other people. Then he did not dare to confess, since she was the bride of his best friend, Prince Andrei, and he himself was formally married.

In both cases, other people helped him to confess his love and marry: in the first marriage, Prince Vasily and Anna Pavlovna Sherer, in the second, Princess Marya. However, the reality was different. Prince Vasily simply forced Pierre to do this, and Pierre himself asked Princess Marya to help him.

Although a lot of time passed between the first and second marriages, Pierre remained an indecisive person. True, his indecision in the first case was due to the fact that he did not want to marry, he simply considered himself obliged to do so. In the second case, on the contrary, he loved Natasha so much that he could not imagine that he was reciprocated: Pierre even believed that “he is a man, just a man”, and Natasha is “completely different, higher”. For Pierre, this indecision, lack of faith in himself were characteristic features.

In the fourth volume of L.N. Tolstoy describes Pierre’s feelings before the matchmaking and marriage to Natasha in this way: “In Pierre’s soul, nothing similar happened now to what happened in her in similar circumstances of his matchmaking with Helen. He did not repeat, as then, with painful shame, the words spoken by him, he did not say to himself: “Ah, why did I not say this, and why, why did I say then “I love you”?” Now, on the contrary, he repeated every word of hers, his own, in his imagination with all the details of her face, smile, and did not want to subtract or add anything, he only wanted to repeat. There was no doubt whether what he had done was good or bad - now there was not even a shadow.

It was difficult to find such opposite wives as Helen and Natasha. One is the personification of everything artificial, cold, frozen (“marble beauty”). Helen's face is a beautiful mask that does not reflect a single feeling, if she could experience any feelings at all. Helen's smile expressed nothing at all, it was the smile of a statue. On the contrary, Natasha is the very embodiment of life, variability, impermanence. It is no coincidence that the mother found that there was too much of something in her that would not allow her to be happy. If Helen lacks life, then Natasha has even too much life. It was from here that the wild things she sometimes did. There is no doubt that Helen is quite capable of bad deeds, it was not for nothing that she almost openly cheated on Pierre, but she managed to observe social decency, which are alien to the very nature of Natasha and Pierre.

However, with all the differences, there are similarities between Helen and Natasha. They both seem to be lower than Pierre in their spiritual and mental qualities: both were not as smart and deep as he was.

Natasha completely sank, becoming a female from a beautiful young woman (that's what Tolstoy calls her in the epilogue of the novel). Helen turns readers away with her emptiness, callousness. Both wives were inferior in their human qualities to Pierre, an amazing man, full of kindness, intelligence, nobility. Everything is clear with Helen - marrying her was a huge mistake for Pierre, he realized this very quickly. As for Natasha, everything is more complicated here. Pierre married her for love and, apparently, was quite happy in family life. He had children, but it seems to me that Nikolenka Bolkonsky was spiritually closer to them than Pierre. It seems to me that the only woman who in the novel is equal in quality to Pierre was Princess Marya. It is probably no coincidence that she, like Pierre, married a man who is difficult to compare with her in terms of her spiritual and mental qualities. Perhaps such unequal marriages are generally characteristic of outstanding people.

The sponsor of the publication of the article is the presenter, toastmaster, showman Alexei Gromov. If you need a host for a wedding in Moscow - invite Alexei Gromov, you can't go wrong! Individual scenarios for holding a wedding, many years of experience as a toastmaster, knowledge of all the nuances of organizing a wedding celebration, a flexible approach to clients. On Alexey's website www.tamada-gromov.ru/proekt/101.html you can see his portfolio, reviews of the newlyweds, watch a video with his work. Alexey will gladly make your holiday truly unforgettable.

In his epic novel "War and Peace" Tolstoy showed the diversity of human relations. Friendship, love, hatred, spiritual quests and disappointments, the selflessness of soldiers in war and the senseless intrigues of secular society - all this is nothing but the life that such people make. Passions literally seethe on the pages of the novel: love, devotion, hatred.

One of the main characters of the novel is Pierre Bezukhov, in whose image the writer revealed the complex process of the internal formation of a personality. Tolstoy shows Pierre in a variety of life situations, revealing new features and qualities in it.

The duel between Bezukhov and Dolokhov is one of the turning points in the life of the former. The description of the deadliest contest occupies several pages in the novel. At the same time, it is told in detail about the events that prepare this scene, as well as what happens to the duel participants after what happened.

In my opinion, Pierre's marriage to Helen Kuragina is a kind of plot of the action. The writer portrays her as a depraved woman who changes lovers like gloves. She marries Pierre not for love, but for convenience, because of the inheritance, and therefore does not respect her future husband, considering him a fool. Naturally, such behavior of the wife could only lead to one thing - a duel with one of her lovers, who, ironically, becomes Dolokhov.

The duel scene is very important because it puts an end to Pierre's relationship with Helene. A dispute between Bezukhov and Dolokhov ensues at a dinner party in honor of Bagration, hosted at the English Club. Sitting opposite Dolokhov and Nikolai Rostov, Bezukhov thinks "about one thing, heavy and unresolved." It turns out that this question that tormented him was the princess's hint in Moscow about Dolokhov's closeness to his wife and the anonymous letter he received that morning. Every time his inadvertent glance met Dolokhov's "impudent" eyes, Pierre felt "like something terrible, ugly rose in his soul, and he rather turned away."

Bezukhov knows that Dolokhov will not stop at disgracing an old friend: “It would be a special charm for him to disgrace my name and laugh at me, precisely because I ... helped him.” So Pierre thinks, while Dolokhov and Nikolai Rostov, looking at him mockingly and disapprovingly, drink to pretty women.

In this situation, Helen's husband is afraid of the opponent. Having taught himself to think everything through to the end and be frank with himself, he honestly admits to himself: “It means nothing to him to kill a person ... He must think that I am afraid of him. And indeed, I am afraid of him ... ".
But in Pierre's soul, overcoming fear, rage rises. And when Dolokhov, with a serious expression, but with a smiling “mouth in the corners, turned to Pierre with a glass,” this rage boils up, looking for a way out. Making a toast to beautiful women and their lovers, Dolokhov grabs a piece of paper with the text of the cantata from Pierre's hands. Such behavior would have been quite possible with their friendly relations, but now "something terrible and ugly ... rose and took possession of Pierre." In a fit of anger, he challenges Dolokhov to a duel.

And now - a duel in Sokolniki. In this situation, the real essence of Dolokhov is more manifested than Pierre. He knows that Bezukhov does not know how to shoot, but does not make any attempts to stop the bloodshed. On the contrary, when the seconds Nesvitsky and Denisov make, as expected, an attempt at reconciliation, Dolokhov answers them: “No apologies, nothing decisively.”

Both seconds realize that a murder is taking place. Therefore, they hesitate for about three minutes, when everything is ready. Nothing seems to be able to save Pierre. Does Dolokhov understand this? What is Bezukhov to blame for him? Why is he willing to kill a man? It is unlikely that Dolokhov thought deeply about these questions, considering the public insult inflicted on him as the cause of the duel.

“It became scary,” writes Tolstoy. However, what was happening could not be stopped.

Pierre, absurdly stretching forward right hand, “apparently afraid of lest he kill himself with this pistol”, shoots first and injures his opponent. Both of them act after the shot as these two people, with these characters, should act. The wounded Dolokhov, having fallen into the snow, is still aiming. His essence lies in this action: to the best of his ability - to finish to the end, to take revenge at all costs.

And Pierre stands, “helplessly spreading his legs and arms, straight with his broad chest” in front of Dolokhov so that even his second Denisov, unable to stand it, shouts: “Stop it!” Fortunately, Dolokhov missed ...

state of mind, in which the opponents are during the duel, is reversed after it. The cruel and resolute Dolokhov, driving up to the house after the duel, strikes Rostov and the reader. He cries, worrying about his mother, who, having learned about the duel, can get very excited and not survive it. Here the young man appears as a devoted and ardently loving son.

After the duel, Pierre ponders all night: Dolokhov’s “dying face” does not come out of his imagination. He reminisces about his life, from the day of his marriage to the duel. Pierre, experiencing his delusion and disappointment, comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to break with Helen.

The explanation of the spouses the next day ends with an angry fit of Pierre. We do not see in him that bewildered, helpless person as he appears during a duel. Pierre is furious. He decides to part forever with his wife and go to St. Petersburg.

From that moment on, Bezukhov begins a new stage of life associated with Freemasonry. He reveals himself as a person in a different direction - Tolstoy shows not his personal life, but his public one.

Thus, Pierre's duel with Dolokhov is, as it were, a turning point in Bezukhov's life. Therefore, in the context of the entire work, this episode plays important role- allows the reader to more deeply understand the evolution of the image of Pierre.