The path of life's quest of Pierre Bezukhov table. Pierre Bezukhov: character description

All the great deeds of mankind are the result of experience accumulated over the years, which, as we know, comes only with mistakes. I completely agree with the saying “He who does nothing makes no mistakes” - after all, even the most famous and great people reached their position after going through a series of mistakes.
This saying encourages decision-making. To achieve something meaningful, you first need to get things moving. And mistakes should not be a reason to give up and abandon the idea, but an indicator of experience and movement - albeit in the wrong direction. It is better to make mistakes, but look for a solution, than to sit idly by - this is the meaning of this statement.
We can observe an example of the accumulation of experience through mistakes and complete inaction in the comparison of the images of two bright literary heroes— Pierre Bezukhov from Tolstoy and Ilya Oblomov from Goncharov. The first is the illegitimate son of a wealthy count, who became his heir. Pierre is a naive, kind, gentle young man; he sincerely believes in the purity of human intentions and does not notice selfish intentions future wife- Helen and her false friends Anatoly and Dolokhov. Despite some infantilism, Bezukhov is a passionate and addicted person, as evidenced by his endless search for himself and his mission: in an unsuccessful marriage, wild life, the Masonic lodge, war. However, in any situation, the young count knows how to preserve human face and remain the same kind and naive Pierre.
Bezukhov’s entire life is imbued with one goal - to serve society, to make people happier. He sees his personal happiness in serving not people, but humanity in general. Only being captured and meeting Platon Karataev changes Pierre's outlook on life. Returning from the war, he marries his beloved girl, Natasha, and finally finds happiness and harmony after making so many mistakes.
You can contrast Pierre with the hero Goncharov. Ilya Oblomov is a landowner, good-natured, but due to his upbringing he is very lazy. Since childhood, his parents groomed and cherished Ilyusha, did not allow him to work, and did not pay due attention to their son’s education. As a result, Oblomov lies on the sofa all day long, and servants do all the work and even the simplest household chores for him.
The key moment of the work is Oblomov’s meeting with Olga. His daydreaming and childishness develop into a desire to live, act and win the girl’s favor. But the intentions remain just that, because Oblomov is not capable of real activity - and Olga leaves him. The hero himself understands that this laziness and lack of interest in anything has already ruined all the good that was in him. Melancholy and lack of will lead to Oblomov’s extinction.
The fate of these heroes, who have many common features, but building their lives differently, demonstrates to us: we can only achieve happiness and success by finding our own path. This search will certainly lead us through mistakes - small and catastrophic, but the main task of a person is to discern them, correct them and in no case give up. The one who does nothing makes no mistakes, and our mistakes help us act correctly, wisely and achieve success!

Do you need to analyze your mistakes? In order to reveal the topic at hand, it is necessary to determine the definitions of basic concepts. What is experience? And what are errors? Experience is the knowledge and skills that a person has gained in each of life situations. Errors are incorrectness in actions, deeds, statements, thoughts. These two concepts that cannot exist without each other, they are tightly connected. The more experience, the fewer mistakes you make - this is a common truth. But you can’t gain experience without making mistakes – this is a harsh reality. Every person stumbles in his life, makes mistakes, does stupid things. We cannot do without this; it is the ups and downs that teach us how to live. Only by making mistakes and learning lessons from problematic life situations can we develop. That is, it is possible and even necessary to make mistakes and go astray, but the main thing is to analyze mistakes and correct them.

Very often in world fiction, writers touch on the topic of mistakes and experience. So, for example, in the epic novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, one of the main characters, Pierre Bezukhov, spent all his time in the company of Kuragin and Dolokhov, leading an idle lifestyle, not burdened by worries, sorrows and thoughts. But, gradually realizing that panache and social promenade are empty and pointless pursuits, he understands that this is not for him. But he was too young and ignorant: to draw such conclusions, one must rely on experience. The hero cannot immediately understand the people around him, and very often makes mistakes in them. This is clearly manifested in the relationship with Helen Kuragina. Later he realizes that their marriage was a mistake, he was deceived by “marble shoulders”. Some time after the divorce, he joins the Masonic lodge and, apparently, finds himself. Bezukhov is engaged social activities, meets with interesting people, in a word, his personality acquires integrity. Beloved and devoted wife, healthy children, close friends, interesting job– components of a happy and full life. Pierre Bezukhov is exactly the person who, through trial and error, finds his meaning of existence.

Another example can be found in the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N.S. Leskova. The main character, Ivan Severyanych Flyagin, had to drink the bitter cup of trial and error. It all started with an accident in his youth: the mischief of a young postilion cost the life of an old monk. Ivan was born the “promised son” and from his very birth was destined to serve God. His life leads from one misfortune to another, from trial to trial, until his soul is cleansed and brings the hero to the monastery. He will die for a long time and will not die. He had to pay for many things for his mistakes: love, freedom (he was a prisoner in the Kyrgyz-Kaisak steppes), health (he was recruited). But this bitter experience taught him better than any persuasion and demands that one cannot escape fate. The hero’s calling from the very beginning was religion, but the young man with ambitions, hopes and passions could not consciously accept the rank, which is required by the specifics of the church service. Faith in a priest must be unshakable, otherwise how will he help parishioners find it? It was a thorough analysis of his own mistakes that could lead him to the path of true service to God.

Pondering over destinies different heroes, we understand that it was the mistakes they made and their correction that helped them find themselves. Without them they would not have received the priceless life experience, which taught them to better understand people, events and, most importantly, allowed them to know their individuality and understand themselves. Thus, I can conclude that you should always analyze your mistakes, applying the acquired knowledge in practice.

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Pierre Bezukhov was illegitimate son one of richest people in Russia. In society he was perceived as an eccentric, everyone laughed at his beliefs, aspirations and statements. No one considered his opinion or took him seriously. But when Pierre received a huge inheritance, everyone began to fawn on him, he became a desired groom for many social coquettes...

While living in France, he became imbued with the ideas of Freemasonry; it seemed to Pierre that he had found like-minded people, that with their help he could change the world for the better. But soon he became disillusioned with Freemasonry, although his desire for equality among people and justice in everything was ineradicable.

Pierre Bezukhov is still very young and inexperienced, he is looking for the purpose of his life and existence in general, but, unfortunately, he comes to the conclusion that nothing can be changed in this world and falls under the bad influence of Kuragin and Dolokhov. Pierre simply begins to “waste his life”, spending his time on balls and social evenings. Kuragin marries him to Helen.

Bezukhov was inspired by passion for Helen Kuragina, the very first secular beauty, he rejoiced at the happiness of marrying her. But after some time, Pierre noticed that Helen was just a beautiful doll with an icy heart, a painted smile and a cruel, hypocritical disposition. Marriage to Helen Kuragina brought Pierre Bezukhov only pain and disappointment in the female sex.

Tired of a wild life and inaction, Pierre's soul is eager to work. He begins to carry out reforms in his lands, tries to give freedom to the serfs, but what is very unfortunate is that people do not understand him, they are so accustomed to slavery that they cannot even imagine how they can live without it. People decide that Pierre has “quirks.”

When the War of 1812 began, Pierre Bezukhov, although not a military man, went to the front to see how people fought for their Fatherland. While on the fourth bastion, Pierre saw a real war, he saw how people were suffering because of Napoleon. Bezukhov was struck and inspired by the patriotism, zeal and self-sacrifice of ordinary soldiers, he felt pain along with them, Pierre was filled with fierce hatred of Bonaparte, he wanted to kill him personally. Unfortunately, he failed and was captured instead.

Bezukhov spent a month in prison. There he met a simple “soldier” Platon Karataev. This acquaintance and being in captivity played a significant role in Pierre's life quest. He finally understood and realized the truth that he had been looking for for a long time: that every person has the right to happiness and should be happy. Pierre Bezukhov saw true price life.

Pierre found his happiness in marriage with Natasha Rostova, she was for him not only his wife, the mother of his children and the woman he loved, she was more - she was a friend who supported him in everything.

Bezukhov, like all the Decembrists, fought for truth, for the freedom of the people, for honor; it was these goals that served as the reason for his joining their ranks.

A long path of wandering, sometimes erroneous, sometimes funny and absurd, nevertheless led Pierre Bezukhov to the truth, which he had to understand after going through difficult trials of fate. We can say that, no matter what, the end life's quest Pierre is good, because he achieved the goal that he initially pursued. He tried to change this world for the better. And each of us must also strive for this goal, because the house consists of small bricks, and they are made of small grains of sand, and the grains of sand are our good and fair deeds.

We first meet Pierre, like Prince Andrei, in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. He has just returned from abroad and now hopes to meet something unexpected, interesting, and intelligent in Russian aristocratic society. It is this expectation and even a “smart, natural look” that distinguishes Pierre from all those gathered. Pierre has not yet decided who he will be, “a cavalry guard or a diplomat,” he is not yet acting, but is philosophizing and thinking instead of choosing a career, as everyone expects from him. Unpredictability, a wealth of potential possibilities, inner freedom - this is what Pierre is like on the pages of the novel. Participation in the company of Dolokhov and Kuragin, an absurd incident with a bear, marriage to Helen - all this, oddly enough, reveals these qualities of Pierre.

The moral feeling initially inherent in Pierre opposed marriage to Helen, a woman spiritually alien to him. Pierre felt that there was “something nasty, something forbidden” in this, very soon realized that he had connected his life with a low woman, and managed to take full responsibility for this, without blaming anyone for it: “But What is my fault? - he asked himself. “The fact that you married without loving her, the fact that you deceived both yourself and her.” The duel with Dolokhov shocked Pierre not so much because of his closeness possible death, how much ease of taking the life of another person.

Why live*? What is the meaning of life7 Pierre painfully tries to find at least something meaningful not only in his life, but in the life of humanity in general - and does not find it. “It was as if the main screw on which his whole life was held had turned in his head.” “Everything in him and around him seemed to him confusing, meaningless and disgusting.”

It was in this state of mental discord that Pierre met the freemason Bazdeev at the station in Torzhok and became interested in Freemasonry. In Freemasonry, Pierre was inspired by the idea of ​​personal self-improvement, the opportunity to “become quite good,” and also to help people - peasants, first of all. However, nothing came of his transformations on the estate; the idea of ​​actively helping people was rejected by the Masonic brothers, many of whom joined the lodge only to acquire the necessary connections in society. Freemasonry turned out to be just an illusion of finding the meaning of life, that general truth that Pierre spoke about to Prince Andrei in Bogucharovo.

One of the most important stages The war of 1812 becomes the life of Pierre. From the very beginning of the war, Pierre was filled with a sense of a formidable and at the same time salutary catastrophe, which should end his existence as a “retired, good-natured chamberlain living out his days in Moscow.” Pierre is waiting for a catastrophe as a change in this whole life, in which he has become hopelessly lost. The impending terrible event must cut the vital knot in which his personal existence is entangled.

On the eve of Borodin, on the descent from Mozhaisk Mountain, Pierre simultaneously encounters carts with wounded and a cavalry regiment coming towards them singing. Pierre thinks about the cavalrymen: “They may die tomorrow, why are they thinking about anything other than death.” What do they know that Pierre doesn’t know? This riddle is resolved in a conversation with Prince Andrei on the eve of the Battle of Borodino. Prince Andrei is convinced that the success of the battle will depend “on the feeling that is in me, in him,” he pointed to Timokhin, “in every soldier.” Pierre now understands the full significance of this war and the upcoming battle: “they want to attack the whole world.” Pierre understands that people are united by the “hidden warmth of patriotism.” The joy of merging with " common life“Pierre will fully feel the soldiers and all the defenders of the Fatherland at Raevsky’s battery. However, Pierre will also have to be convinced that “war is not a courtesy, but the most disgusting thing in life.” The Battle of Borodino ends with the mass destruction of people. “No, now they will leave it, now they will be horrified by what they did!” - thought Pierre, aimlessly following the crowds of stretchers moving from the battlefield. Shocked by everything he saw, Pierre, in burning Moscow, is obsessed with the idea of ​​killing Napoleon, which ends in captivity.

The meeting in captivity with Platon Karataev is a new stage in Pierre’s spiritual quest. Platon Karataev lives in harmony with all that exists, graciously accepting everything that falls to his lot, loving everyone without exception who surrounds him. In the description of Platon Karataev, the definition “round” is most often encountered. The circle in world art is a symbol of harmony, and so is Karataev’s world. Karataev lives with what he has and does not want anything else. Now, after meeting with Karataev, Pierre believes that direct, natural life itself, existence itself as a process is the answer to all his questions: “the terrible question that previously destroyed all his mental structures: why? “now did not exist for him.”

However, this is the “Karataev” worldview, even goodwill towards everyone. With distance, however, from everyone, he breaks down after meeting Natasha. Love for a specific person displaces the blissful, but not effective love for everyone. The Pierre of the epilogue is Pierre standing at a new stage of his life, far from the last. The novel has an open ending. Pierre's fate does not end with his participation in a secret society, just as the path of spiritual quest cannot end while a person is alive.

Pierre's life is a path of discovery and disappointment, a path of crisis and in many ways dramatic. Pierre is an emotional person. He is distinguished by a mind prone to dreamy philosophizing, absent-mindedness, weakness of will, lack of initiative, and exceptional kindness. Main feature the hero is a search for peace, agreement with oneself, a search for a life that would be in harmony with the needs of the heart and would bring moral satisfaction.

At the beginning of the novel, Pierre is a fat, massive young man with an intelligent, timid and observant look that distinguishes him from the rest of the visitors to the living room. Having recently arrived from abroad, this illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov stands out in the high society salon for his naturalness, sincerity and simplicity. He is soft, pliable, and easily susceptible to the influence of others. For example, he leads a chaotic, riotous life, participating in the revelry and excesses of secular youth, although he perfectly understands the emptiness and worthlessness of such a pastime.

Large and awkward, it does not fit in with the elegant decor of the salon, it confuses and shocks others. But he also inspires fear. Anna Pavlovna is frightened by the young man’s gaze: smart, timid, observant, natural. This is Pierre, the illegitimate son of a Russian nobleman. In the Scherer salon they accept him only just in case, what if Count Kirill officially recognizes his son. At first, many things seem strange to us about Pierre: he was brought up in Paris and does not know how to behave in society. And only later will we understand that spontaneity, sincerity, ardor are the essential traits of Pierre. Nothing will ever force him to change himself, to live according to a general, average form, or to conduct meaningless conversations.

Already here it is noticeable that Pierre does not fit into the false society of flatterers and careerists, the defining feature of which is the all-pervasive lie. For this reason, the appearance of Pierre causes fear among the majority of those present, and his sincerity and straightforwardness causes outright fear. Let us remember how Pierre left the useless aunt, spoke to the French abbot and became so carried away by the conversation that he began to clearly threaten to disrupt the system of social relationships familiar to the Scherer household, thereby reviving the dead, false atmosphere.

With one intelligent and timid glance, Pierre seriously frightened the owner of the salon and her guests with their false standards of behavior. Pierre has the same kind and sincere smile, his special harmless gentleness is striking. But Tolstoy himself does not consider his hero weak and weak-willed, as it may seem at first glance: “Pierre was one of those people who, despite his external, so-called weakness of character, do not look for a confidant for his grief.”

In Pierre there is a constant struggle between the spiritual and the sensual; the inner, moral essence of the hero contradicts his way of life. On the one hand, he is full of noble, freedom-loving thoughts, the origins of which go back to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Pierre is an admirer of Rousseau and Montesquieu, who captivated him with the ideas of universal equality and re-education of man. On the other hand, Pierre participates in revelry in the company of Anatoly Kuragin, and here that riotous lordly beginning is manifested in him, the embodiment of which was once his father, Catherine’s nobleman, Count Bezukhov.

Pierre's naivety and gullibility, inability to understand people, force him to make a number of life mistakes, the most serious of which is marrying the stupid and cynical beauty Helen Kuragina. With this rash act, Pierre deprives himself of all hope for possible personal happiness.

This is one of the important milestones in the hero's life. But Pierre is increasingly aware that he does not have a real family, that his wife is an immoral woman. Discontent grows within him, not with others, but with himself. This is exactly what happens to truly moral people. For their disorder, they consider it possible to execute only themselves. An explosion occurs at a dinner in honor of Bagration. Pierre challenges Dolokhov, who insulted him, to a duel. After everything that happened to him, especially after the duel, Pierre finds his whole life meaningless. He is experiencing a mental crisis: this is a strong dissatisfaction with himself and the associated desire to change his life and build it on new, good principles.

Bezukhov abruptly breaks up with Helen after learning how strong her love for his money was. Bezukhov himself is indifferent to money and luxury, so he calmly agrees with the demands of his cunning wife to give her most of his fortune. Pierre is selfless and ready to do anything to quickly get rid of the lies that the insidious beauty surrounded him with. Despite his carelessness and youth, Pierre acutely senses the line between innocent jokes and dangerous games, which can cripple someone’s life, so he is openly indignant in a conversation with the scoundrel Anatole after the failed abduction of Natasha.

Having broken up with his wife, Pierre, on the way to St. Petersburg, in Torzhok, waiting for the horses at the station, asks himself difficult (eternal) questions: What is wrong? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live and what am I? What is life, what is death? What force controls everything? Here he meets the freemason Bazdeev. At the moment of spiritual discord that Pierre was experiencing, Bazdeev seems to him to be just the person he needs. Pierre is offered a path of moral improvement, and he accepts this path, because most of all he now needs to improve his life and himself.

Tolstoy makes the hero go through a difficult path of losses, mistakes, delusions and quests. Having become close to the Freemasons, Pierre tries to find the meaning of life in religious truth. Freemasonry gave the hero the belief that there should be a kingdom of goodness and truth in the world, and the highest happiness of a person is to strive to achieve them. He passionately desires to “regenerate the vicious human race.” In the teachings of the Freemasons, Pierre is attracted by the ideas of “equality, brotherhood and love,” so first of all he decides to alleviate the lot of the serfs. In moral purification for Pierre, as for Tolstoy at a certain period, lay the truth of Freemasonry, and, carried away by it, at first he did not notice what was a lie. It seems to him that he has finally found the purpose and meaning of life: “And only now, when I... try... to live for others, only now I understand all the happiness of life.” This conclusion helps Pierre find the real path in his further quest.

Pierre shares his new ideas about life with Andrei Bolkonsky. Pierre is trying to transform the Order of Freemasons, draws up a project in which he calls for action, practical help to his neighbor, for the dissemination of moral ideas for the benefit of humanity throughout the world... However, the Freemasons decisively reject Pierre's project, and he is finally convinced of the validity of his suspicions about this , that many of them were looking in Freemasonry for a means of expanding their secular connections, that the Masons - these insignificant people - were not interested in the problems of goodness, love, truth, the good of humanity, but in the uniforms and crosses that they sought in life. Pierre cannot be satisfied with mysterious, mystical rituals and sublime conversations about good and evil. Disappointment soon sets in in Freemasonry, since Pierre’s republican ideas were not shared by his “brothers,” and besides, Pierre sees that among the Freemasons there is hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and careerism. All this leads Pierre to break with the Freemasons.

It is common for him, in a fit of passion, to succumb to such instant hobbies, accepting them as true and correct. And then, when the true essence of things is revealed, when hopes are crushed, Pierre just as actively falls into despair and unbelief, like a small child who has been offended. He wants to find a field of activity to translate fair and humane ideas into concrete, useful work. Therefore, Bezukhov, like Andrei, begins to engage in the improvement of his serfs. All the measures he took were imbued with sympathy for the oppressed peasantry. Pierre makes sure that punishments are used only exhortations, and not corporal, so that the men are not burdened with overwork, and hospitals, shelters and schools are established on every estate. But all of Pierre’s good intentions remained intentions. Why, wanting to help the peasants, he could not do this? The answer is simple. The young humane landowner was prevented from bringing his good undertakings to life by his naivety, lack of practical experience, and ignorance of reality. The stupid but cunning chief manager easily fooled the smart and intelligent master around his finger, creating the appearance of precise execution of his orders.

Feeling a strong need for high noble activity, feeling rich forces within himself, Pierre nevertheless does not see the purpose and meaning of life. The Patriotic War of 1812, the general patriotism of which captured him, helps the hero find a way out of this state of discord with himself and the world around him. His life seemed calm and serene only from the outside. "Why? Why? What is going on in the world?" - these questions never ceased to bother Bezukhov. This ongoing inner work prepared for his spiritual revival during the Patriotic War of 1812.

Contact with the people on the Borodino field was of great importance for Pierre. The landscape of the Borodino field before the start of the battle (bright sun, fog, distant forests, golden fields and copses, smoke from gunfire) correlates with Pierre’s mood and thoughts, causing him some kind of elation, a feeling of the beauty of the spectacle, the greatness of what is happening. Through his eyes, Tolstoy conveys his understanding of the decisive events in the people's historical life. Shocked by the behavior of the soldiers, Pierre himself shows courage and readiness for self-sacrifice. At the same time, one cannot help but note the naivety of the hero: his decision to kill Napoleon.

“To be a soldier, just a soldier!.. To enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so,” - this is the desire that took possession of Pierre after the Battle of Borodino. Not being a military officer, like Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre expressed his love for the fatherland in his own way: he formed a regiment at his own expense and took it for support, while he himself remained in Moscow to kill Napoleon as the main culprit of national disasters. It was here, in the capital occupied by the French, that Pierre’s selfless kindness was fully revealed.

In relation to Pierre ordinary people and to nature the author’s criterion of beauty in man is once again manifested. Seeing helpless people at the mercy of the rampaging French soldiers, he cannot remain simply a witness to the numerous human dramas that unfold before his eyes. Without thinking about his own safety, Pierre protects a woman, stands up for a madman, and saves a child from a burning house. Before his eyes, representatives of the most cultured and civilized nation are rampaging, violence and arbitrariness are being committed, people are being executed, accused of arson, which they did not commit. These terrible and painful impressions are aggravated by the situation of captivity.

But the most terrible thing for the hero is not hunger and lack of freedom, but the collapse of faith in the just structure of the world, in man and God. Decisive for Pierre is his meeting with the soldier, former peasant Platon Karataev, who, according to Tolstoy, personifies the masses. This meeting meant for the hero an introduction to the people, folk wisdom, an even closer rapprochement with ordinary people. The round, affectionate soldier performs a real miracle, forcing Pierre to again look at the world brightly and joyfully, to believe in goodness, love, and justice. Communication with Karataev evokes in the hero a feeling of peace and comfort. His suffering soul warms up under the influence of the warmth and participation of a simple Russian person. Platon Karataev has some special gift of love, a feeling of blood connection with all people. His wisdom, which amazed Pierre, is that he lives in complete harmony with everything earthly, as if dissolving in it.

In captivity, Pierre finds that peace and self-satisfaction that he had previously vainly strived for. Here he learned not with his mind, but with his whole being, with his life, that man was created for happiness, that happiness is in himself, in the satisfaction of natural human needs... Introducing himself to the people's truth, to the people's ability to live helps the inner liberation of Pierre, who was always looking for a solution the question of the meaning of life: he sought this in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the dispersion of social life, in wine, in the heroic feat of self-sacrifice, in romantic love for Natasha; he sought this through thought, and all these searches and attempts all deceived him. And finally, with the help of Karataev, this issue was resolved. The most essential thing about Karataev is loyalty and immutability. Loyalty to yourself, your only and constant spiritual truth. Pierre follows this for some time.

In characterizing the hero’s state of mind at this time, Tolstoy develops his ideas about a person’s inner happiness, which lies in complete mental freedom, calmness and tranquility, independent of external circumstances. However, having experienced the influence of Karataev’s philosophy, Pierre, upon returning from captivity, did not become a Karataevite, a non-resistance. By the very essence of his character, he was not able to accept life without searching.

A turning point occurs in Bezukhov’s soul, which means the adoption of Platon Karataev’s life-loving view of the world. Having learned the truth of Karataev, Pierre in the epilogue of the novel is already going his own way. His dispute with Nikolai Rostov proves that Bezukhov faces the problem of moral renewal of society. Active virtue, according to Pierre, can lead the country out of crisis. It is necessary to unite honest people. A happy family life (married to Natasha Rostova) does not distract Pierre from public interests.

The feeling of complete harmony for such an intelligent and inquisitive person as Pierre is impossible without participation in specific useful activities aimed at achieving a high goal - the same harmony that cannot exist in a country where the people are in the position of slaves. Therefore, Pierre naturally comes to Decembrism, entering secret society to fight against everything that interferes with life and humiliates the honor and dignity of a person. This struggle becomes the meaning of his life, but does not make him a fanatic who, for the sake of an idea, consciously refuses the joys of life. Pierre speaks with indignation about the reaction that has occurred in Russia, about Arakcheevism, theft. At the same time, he understands the strength of the people and believes in them. With all this, the hero resolutely opposes violence. In other words, for Pierre, the path of moral self-improvement remains decisive in the reconstruction of society.

Intense intellectual search, ability to selfless actions, high spiritual impulses, nobility and devotion in love (relationships with Natasha), true patriotism, the desire to make society more just and humane, truthfulness and naturalness, the desire for self-improvement make Pierre one of the best people his time.

We see at the end of the novel happy person who has a good family, a faithful and devoted wife, who loves and is loved. Thus, it is Pierre Bezukhov who achieves spiritual harmony with the world and himself in War and Peace. He goes through the difficult path of searching for the meaning of life to the end and finds it, becoming an advanced, progressive person of his era.

I would like to once again note Tolstoy’s ability to portray his hero as he is, without embellishment, a natural person who tends to constantly change. The internal changes taking place in the soul of Pierre Bezukhov are profound, and this is reflected in his appearance. When we first meet Pierre, he is “a massive, fat young man with an intensely observant gaze.” Pierre looks completely different after his marriage, in the company of the Kuragins: “He was silent... and, looking completely absent-minded, picked his nose with his finger. His face was sad and gloomy.” And when it seemed to Pierre that he had found the meaning of activity aimed at improving the lives of the peasants, he “spoke with the animation of joy.”

And only after freeing himself from the oppressive lies of the secular farce, finding himself in difficult military conditions and finding himself among ordinary Russian peasants, Pierre feels the taste of life, finds peace of mind, which again changes his appearance. Despite his bare feet, dirty, torn clothes, tangled hair filled with lice, the expression in his eyes was firm, calm and animated, and he had never had such a look before.

Through the image of Pierre Bezukhov, Tolstoy shows that no matter how different the best representatives of high society may take in search of the meaning of life, they come to the same result: the meaning of life is in unity with their native people, in love for this people.

It was in captivity that Bezukhov came to the conviction: “Man was created for happiness.” But the people around Pierre are suffering, and in the epilogue Tolstoy shows Pierre thinking hard about how to defend goodness and truth.

So, having gone through a difficult path, full of mistakes, misconceptions in the reality of Russian history, Pierre finds himself, preserves his natural essence, and does not succumb to the influence of society. Throughout the novel, Tolstoy's hero is in constant search, emotional experiences and doubts, which ultimately lead him to his true calling.

And if at first Bezukhov’s feelings constantly fight with each other, he thinks contradictoryly, then he is finally freed from everything superficial and artificial, finds his true face and calling, clearly knows what he needs from life. We see how beautiful Pierre's true, genuine love is for Natasha, he becomes a wonderful father of the family, is actively involved in social activities, benefits people and is not afraid of new things.

Conclusion

The novel “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy introduced us to many heroes, each of whom is a bright personality and has individual traits. One of the most attractive characters in the novel is Pierre Bezukhov. His image stands at the center of “War and Peace”, because the figure of Pierre is significant for the author himself and plays a huge role in his work. It is known that the fate of this hero was the basis of the plan of the entire novel.

After reading the novel, we understand that Pierre Bezukhov is one of Tolstoy’s favorite heroes. During the story, the image of this hero undergoes significant changes, his development, which is a consequence of his spiritual quest, the search for the meaning of life, some of his highest, enduring ideals. Leo Tolstoy focuses on the sincerity, childish gullibility, kindness and purity of his hero’s thoughts. And we cannot help but notice these qualities, not appreciate them, despite the fact that at first Pierre is presented to us as a lost, weak-willed, undistinguished young man.

Fifteen years of Pierre's life are passing before our eyes. There were many temptations, mistakes and defeats on his way, but there were also many accomplishments, victories, and overcomings. Pierre's life path is an ongoing search for a worthy place in life, an opportunity to benefit people. Not external circumstances, but the internal need to improve oneself, to become better - this is Pierre’s guiding star.

The problems raised by Tolstoy in the novel "War and Peace" have universal significance. His novel, according to Gorky, is “a documentary presentation of all the quests that a strong personality undertook in the 19th century in order to find a place and business for himself in the history of Russia”...