I absolutely love a character like this - Duke Andrew in War and Peace.
Pierre is cowardly, Rostov is frivolous, Boris is cunning, Dolokhov is brutish, and the other characters have their own stupidity and their own vulgarity. Andre is the only character who has both thought and perseverance, ambition and compassion, and a manly character.
Andre's life course shown in the book is roughly divided into three stages.
one
In the first stage, he appeared as a respectable and ambitious nobleman. As the representative of the Bolkonski family, the only son of the old duke, his aristocratic status gave him the best life he could get.
His initial image can be seen from the comments of others:
Pierre considered Duke Andrew to be the paragon of all virtues, because in him he was the most perfect combination of those qualities that Pierre lacked, and which can be summed up in the most apt concept of "perseverance". Pierre has always admired Prince Andrew's unhurried attitude in dealing with all kinds of people, his extraordinary memory, his extensive knowledge, and especially his ability to work and study. Pierre was often surprised by Prince Andre's lack of philosophical fantasies, and he considered this not even a weakness but a strength.
But Andrei at that time had a different view of his life. The day-to-day ballroom parties and boring social networks in the upper class made him feel bored, even his wife, after the joy in the early marriage faded. , and made him feel unbearable. He has another desire in his heart to break away from the barriers left by his father, choose another more thrilling life, and personally plunge into the battlefield to build great achievements——
"You mentioned Bonaparte, but Bonaparte, when he went about his work and walked step by step towards his goal, he was free, he had nothing else in mind but his goal, so he achieved Goal. But chain yourself to a woman like a prisoner in shackles and you lose all freedom. All your hope and strength can only weigh you down and make you remorseful. Parlor, gossip, dance, Vanity, petty things--all these are the mazes I can't escape from. .Ignorance, worthless—that's when women show their true colors. . . . Never marry, honey, don't marry."
It's a pity that Pierre didn't listen to him. Later, he was bewitched by Helen's beauty and got married, with green hats one after another.
At this time, Andre criticized his environment and his wife for being extreme. However, he later went to the battlefield and experienced bloody wars. He also charged forward, set a benchmark, and won meritorious achievements.
One of the famous scenes is the one in which Duke Andrew falls on the Platts Hill with a flagpole. In the evening, he stopped moaning and fell into a stuporous coma. At this moment, Napoleon and his subordinates passed by and looked at him specially. At this time, when he was unconscious, he lay on the ground and looked at his long-awaited idol, but he had another idea in his heart——
His head was on fire, he felt that his blood was about to dry, and he saw the distant, high, eternal sky above him. He knew it was Napoleon, the hero he admired, but at this moment he felt so small, so insignificant, compared to what was going on between his heart and that high, boundless sky and clouds.
Andrei was lucky enough to be rescued by the local medical team with serious but not fatal injuries. In the heat of the fever, he began to talk nonsense, remembering the happiness of the past:
In his imagination, the peaceful life of Tongshan and the happiness of his family appeared. Just as he was admiring this happiness, a little Napoleon suddenly appeared... As the morning approached, all the hallucinations were mixed and merged into a dark state of chaos and unconsciousness.
"He's a neurotic and choleric guy," Dr. Lare said.
This is an important turning point in his life experience and thought, from the blind worship of heroes by ordinary young people to a more thoughtful state, reflecting on the meaning of war.
two
When he escaped from the war and trekked home, his wife died in childbirth. She left him a baby boy, and Andrei repented at her dead body, and he moved to Bogucharovo Grange to recover. This is the second stage of his life.
One of my favorite passages is his dialogue with Pierre on farm reform and the debate on the good and evil of human nature. Two people with very different temperaments came together because of their shared thoughtfulness and compassion, but Pierre was too fanciful and too weak in character to have more decisive judgment than Andre.
"You mentioned the school," he added, bending a finger. "Education, wait, you mean him," he said, pointing to a serf who had taken off his hat and walked past them, "from the condition of the beasts. save him and satisfy his spiritual needs, but I think the only possible happiness is the happiness of beasts, but you want to deprive him of this happiness. I envy him, and you want to make him like me, But don't give him my property. Another thing you say is to ease his labor. But it seems to me that physical labor is as necessary to him as mental labor is to you and me... I'm thinking , and he had to think about it, just as he had to plough the fields and mow the grass; otherwise, he would go in and out of the tavern, or groan on the sickbed." Then he talked about the hospital.
Prince Andrew expressed his opinion so clearly and precisely that he seemed to have thought about it more than once. And his tone is very pessimistic, which is based on insight into human nature, he is a severe social critic, a realist thinker.
With this kind of pessimistic thinker's mood, he rested in the farm for two years, until by chance, on the way to visit Rostov's house, he saw Natasha, who was playing with her female companions in the flower field. , his second love has just begun.
Sixteen-year-old Natasha is smart and playful. Under the gentle care of the old Rostov couple, she has developed a pure heart. She likes to sing and dance, and she is full of life and natural. This innocent girlish charm can easily make people around her fall in love with her, and this innocent narcissism complex can also attract the admiration of many men. On the night Andrei stayed at Rostov's house, he heard her talking with his girlfriend at the window sill upstairs, and heard her sweet voice singing a song, and the hope suddenly rushed into Ender. In his heart, save him from chronic depression and awaken him to the idea of starting a new life.
Like all people who have grown up in high society, Prince Andrew likes to see things in high society that do not bear the common stamp of high society. Natasha's look of surprise, joy, and shyness, and even the grammatical error, is characteristic of this. He was especially gentle and careful in his attitude towards her and in his conversations with her. He admired the radiance of joy in her eyes and in her smile, which came not from listening to something ridiculous, but from a sense of inner happiness.
After they danced together at the ball, Andrei began to visit the Rostovs' house frequently, forming a close friendship with the family.
"Why should I struggle and be busy in this narrow, closed frame when life and all its joys are in front of me?" he said to himself. "Pierre was right when he said that in order to be happy, one should believe that happiness is possible, and I believe him now. Let the dead bury their dead, and I live a day to live, and to live happily. "
He was indeed happy during that time, forgetting the shadow of the war, the death of his wife, and being busy with court laws seemed unimportant, and the happy thoughts of a new life poured into his mind. This happiness was evoked by Natasha. Later, he confessed to her that the two were engaged, but the old duke objected, and he was still determined. However, due to his injury, Andrei had to go abroad for a year of training. So he made a prudent decision and asked Natasha to wait for him for a year. During this year's separation, the determination and patience of the two of them could be tested. A year later he returned to marry her.
It was this year's delay that brought the two of them down.
In the early days of the separation, Natasha thought of him wholeheartedly and exchanged letters with each other, and she had been waiting intently. Later, the Rostovs came to Petersburg to attend a ball hosted by Pierre's wife, Countess Bezukhova, the famous courtesan Helen. As mentioned earlier, Helen was notoriously slutty, and Pierre had been separated from her for a long time by this time. And her younger brother Anatoly also inherited the inherent cunning and frivolity of the Kulakin family. He had been deflated at Miss Maria, the sister of Prince Andrei: the old Kulakin valued Bolkonsky The family's power and money encouraged his son to seduce Princess Maria, but the old duke had a vicious eye and saw through the father and son's plans at a glance, and finally the wishful thinking came to nothing.
Anatoly was romantic, attracted by Natasha's pure beauty, and seduced her through the introduction of her sister - Natasha was unable to withstand the violent courtship offensive, and fell in two or three days - she In the end, she was a foolish girl with no experience in the world. She was fascinated by rhetoric, her passion suddenly destroyed her reason, she broke the agreement with Prince Andrew, and desperately wanted to elope with Anatoly. The childish elopement plan leaked out and was stopped by Pavlovna, but the word got out and Natasha's reputation was ruined.
When I saw this scene, I was extremely angry in my heart. I hated Natasha's betrayal, and cherished Andre's broken heart after being betrayed. He was a arrogant person and would never show his sadness and anger. His hopes for a new life, his rekindled thirst for happiness—destroyed after all. He chose to throw himself into battle again.
three
This is the third stage of Andre's life, and the road of no return that leads directly to death. With a broken love and a re-forged hard reason, he threw himself into the battlefield, and finally got his wish: devoting himself to the Great Patriotic War.
Many readers who read this part are angry at Natasha's betrayal, turning from love to hate for the character. However, Toon's portrayal of characters is not stereotyped, he captures the person's heart to deduce his actions. Such a pure and unworldly girl was suddenly pushed into the center of the prosperous dance party, and all kinds of scrutiny eyes were projected. Sinister by nature, she makes mistakes that everyone makes. In the final analysis, Natasha is a pure and kind girl. After she was clear-headed, the psychological punishment for her own guilt and the endless guilt towards Andre made her sleepless and sleepless. To be happy, Natasha no longer sings, but hides her beauty with black clothes, and goes to church every day to pray to atone for her sins.
Prince Andrew was carried off the battlefield on a stretcher for the second time, and he was brought to Natasha by chance. Petersburg was already in chaos. The Rostov family migrated from the city to the ambulance station along the way. The female relatives came down to help rescue the wounded. Natasha's appearance had changed greatly at this time. She heard that Andre was among the wounded, so she came to his sickbed with an excited heart of redemption. However, at this time, Andre Lie has touched the edge of another world——
"A power beyond matter, happiness unaffected by external matter, happiness of pure spirit, happiness of love! Everyone can understand it, but only God can know it and enact it. . . . That kind of love, the objectless love that has always been the essence of the soul, is now experiencing this happiness... The love of man may be transformed into hate, but the love of God never changes. Nothing, not even death, It is the very nature of the soul to be able to destroy this love. I have hated so many people in my life, and of them all, there is not one who loves and hates as much as she does." So he Thinking vividly of Natasha, but not thinking of her delightful charm as before; but thinking of her soul for the first time. So he understood her feelings, her pain, shame and remorse. He knew now for the first time how cruel his rejection was, how ruthless his break with her was.
The meeting between the two was extremely dreamy, with a sacred connotation. On the sickbed shrouded in the breath of death, in the silent dark night, she grabbed his hand and put it on her chest, letting her feel the hot tears of her repentance.
"I love you more than I did before, and know how to love you more," said Prince Andrew, raising her face with his hand and looking into her eyes.
This is a great love that escaped from the mundane and sublimated into the divine. He forgave her all her faults, because the mercy of God exists in his heart, and he loves the whole world full of errors, not the individual - his Life is not long, Toweng refuses to let this character die hastily, so he repeatedly prolongs and prolongs the process before his death, and through Andrei's eyes, Tolstoy glimpses the soul passing through the world and The overlapping realm of the underworld.
"Yes, this is death. I died, so I woke up. Yes, death is waking up," his heart suddenly lit up, and the curtain that had covered the unknown world so far was lifted in front of his soul's sight. He felt that the power that had previously bound him seemed to be liberated, and that strange sense of relief would never leave him again.
Since that day, Prince Andrew has woken up from his life at the same time he woke up. He feels that the awakening of life is no longer than the awakening of a person's life.
Four
At the end of the story, Toweng's own simple values are gradually revealed. He questioned the meaning of war, doubted the general historical laws, affirmed the simple and tenacious nature of the people at the bottom, and also sought answers and relief from religion. All problems finally come down to "human happiness" - war is meaningless, Napoleon is not worthy of worship, history is mostly made by chance, no one can fully control his own destiny, everyone is fighting and killing each other, and The simplest feelings are often found in the most humble people - the old man Pradon whom Pierre met in prison, an old peasant who shared potatoes to his stomach, he thought he had the greatest heart- Simple compassion.
Many people can empathize with Pierre, a soft-hearted and imaginative good-natured man who often struggles with his own desires because of his lack of strong will, is fooled by others because of his kindness, and always wants to do something. Unable to do it—a man who is both unlucky and lucky, in whom one can see his own flaws and weaknesses.
Toon poured a lot of energy into these two characters, he gave Pierre the happy ending and Andre the tragic glory.
I like Pierre, but I love Andre more - for his strong heart and tormented soul, for his melancholy lonely years thinking hard about the meaning of life, for his determination to break his wrist because of his love . Because I can't enjoy the ordinary happiness of the world, and I can't tolerate mediocrity, I would rather fly moths into the flames and pursue a higher level of life value.
Did Andre realize when he was dying? I think so, because he has learned the highest truth: compassion and love.
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