Analysis
(Courtesy of Gradesaver.com)
This section’s portrayal of Napoleon and Tsar Alexander dovetails with the points Tolstoy makes in Chapter 1 about the historical importance (or lack thereof) of great men. For all the pomp surrounding the two emperors, we very rarely see them making decisions or thinking things over in the level of detail that Tolstoy uses for Pierre or the Rostovs. Instead, the emperors are most often seen from afar. Their importance lies not in the individual decisions they make, but in the deep emotion they inspire in their people. In other words, it is the promise of men and money that fuel the war, not the tsar himself.
Tolstoy seems to be ambivalent about whether the overwhelming patriotism that Tsar Alexander inspires is a good thing. On the one hand, it moves the nobility to transcend their self-interest and be generous with their resources – but in addition to money, these resources also include the lives of their peasants. It rouses an endearing, if childish, passion in young Pyotr Rostov, but this passion could very well lead to his death. In fact, we have seen how a similar passion in Pyotor’s brother Nikolai leads to disgust and shame, as has happened before and then is repeated more strongly in this section when the latter is disgusted by nearly killing a man up close.
There is also a motif of people being crushed in the frenzy surrounding the tsar. The crowd tramples Pyotr when he tries to volunteer for military service directly to the tsar; an old woman falls down while trying to catch a biscuit the tsar has thrown; in the hysteria following Pierre’s liberal speech, a nobleman cries out: “Gentlemen, you’re crushing me!” (680) This series of images may be a veiled critique of the indirect harm that blind patriotism can have on the common man.
Forgiveness and selfless love are the dominant forces in this section. Now that the characters have experienced life’s hardships, they are more driven by self-sacrifice than they were at the beginning of the novel. The most obvious example of this is Pierre Bezukhov, who does his best to love Natasha from afar and support her when she is ill after her suicide attempt. However, Princess Marya also urges her brother to forgive their father for his unpleasantness in old age, even though one of the primary complaints against the old man is his cruelty towards her. Even Natasha Rostov, affected by her recent disgrace, prays for her enemies in church (although she has to invent them – a detail that foreshadows how society will forgive Natasha for her indiscretions, since Tolstoy does not count the rumormongers as real enemies).
Between the apocalyptic prophecies, Natasha’s illness, Pyotr’s naïve enthusiasm for the military, and the violent scene in which Napoleon crosses the Niemen, this section is darker than many of the book’s earlier chapters. Tolstoy juxtaposes these events to create an ominous mood that foreshadows the massive bloodshed that will occur once the war gets into full swing. Tolstoy portrays Pierre’s Masonic prophecies with great skepticism, but the interlude in Chapter 1 suggests that he does believe in some level of predestination – the course of history is fixed and individual people are powerless to change or control it. This worldview helps explain the author’s heavy reliance on foreshadowing in this section and throughout the novel.
For any analysis of War and Peace as a whole, Chapter 1 of this section is central. It follows directly on the image of the comet, which, as discussed previously, indicates the way that individuals work in interplay with the most cosmic of events. As such, this chapter echoes the same theme as that of the comet. What follows the history chapter - the way that war disgusts Nikolai even in the midst of his great heroism; the way that the nobility are shaken to support a war that will lead to Moscow’s destruction; and the way Pierre rages desperately to be of another world - are all in line with what the book has been about thus far, but in light of the section’s first chapter, we are meant to begin reflecting on this idea of fate. Tolstoy does not mean to suggest that the Greek Fates are spinning our wheels, but rather that our world made of disparate spinning parts - people and gods and institutions and armies - are all in constant interplay so that what will come must come because of who and what we are.
Finally, this theme is stressed even further when we consider the dramatic irony that would exist for any Russian reader. No educated person of Tolstoy’s day would not have known that Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and the horrors that ensued were soon to be documented in the work. So as events build, though they might be dramatic for a reader unaware of history, Tolstoy intended for his reader to notice how events large and small are all conspiring to produce an event that would scar and define Russia for a long time.
Actually, someone was killed early on. Not one of the main families. Rats! I can’t think of his name.