How Does Tolstoy Create An Internal Conflict Between War And Peace

The main character Lev is illustrated as a character that conforms to the traditional gender roles and subverts against them as well in that time period. Lev is 17 years old with little to no experience with life and all it has to offer. Further, Lev has never experienced the devastation and tragedy of war. Consequently, Lev is very afraid but he is also brave. In this book, Lev is portrayed as a young boy withholding “male socialization” and the development of boy to man. In the beginning of the book, Lev frequently expresses his desire to stick to the traditional male social norms. Lev says, “I was seventeen, flooded with a belief in my own heroic destiny… I would not flee the enemy; I would not miss out on the triumph” (Benioff 9). This quote displays Lev’s interest and bravery in wanting to fend for his home, Leningrad. Furthermore, Lev portrays his masculinity due to his fearlessness in staying home without his family and no experience with the war. It also displays how society told the people of Leningrad that being a man and gaining respect comes with staying back and fighting against the Germans. In reality, there was little to no chance of surviving what the Germans had in store for Leningrad. Hence, Lev’s reason in staying home to gain respect and conquer his masculinity. In contrast, Lev’s actions and feelings tell the readers otherwise. In chapter six Lev says, “I was betraying Kolya,

In John Knowles, fictional novel, A Separate Peace, he uses internal versus external conflict to show the reader that love can lead to suffering. Gene’s external conflict is that Brinker has figured out that Gene caused Finny’s accident. He wants Gene to tell Finny what really happened the night of the accident, “you were there when it happened. What I mean is it wouldn’t do you any harm, you know, if everything about Finny’s accident was cleared up and forgotten (160). Gene is afraid to tell Finny because he thinks that Finny will hate him, and he will lose him as a friend.

Leo Tolstoy was an author, anarchist, critic, pioneer, visionary, and a world changer. He wrote many great novels and various other literary works in his time, but that only scratches the surface of how and what he did to change the world. Leo Tolstoy changed the world by starting schools which allowed peasants to get an education, influencing leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and changed the world through his writings.

During the Victorian Era, living in the middle class, many people were strongly influenced by society, especially in Europe. People felt that they needed to look perfect in the public eye and everything they did had to be something that society would approve of, otherwise it was out of the question. Henrik Ibsen uses the main characters of Nora and Torvald, in his play, “A Doll’s House” just as Leo Tolstoy uses the main characters of Ivan and Praskovya, in his novel, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, to convey what it was like to live in a middle-class society in nineteenth century Europe. By showing that society

Before her relationship with Anatole Kuragin, Natasha is inexperienced when it comes to love. In fact, we see this in her characterization in one of the first few scenes of the novel: her first relationship is with Boris Drubetskoy. He promises the then twelve-year-old girl that in four years he will propose to her. She eagerly agrees, asking, “Forever? Till death?” (Tolstoy 45). Despite this seemingly eternal promise, within the year, Natasha has already lost interest in Boris. Now that he has gone off to war, she tells Sonya, “I remember Nikolenka, too, I do. But not Boris. I don’t remember Boris at all” (Tolstoy 235). This statement is a relatively strong statement to make about someone she said she would love forever. Her younger brother, Petya, then tauntingly claims that, “she was [also] in love with that fat one in the spectacles; now she’s in love with this singer”, suggesting that Natasha has plenty crushes and little love affairs (Tolstoy 235). Soon after this, as well, Natasha begins a relationship with Denisov, an army friend of her brother, who tries to propose to her. Nervous and confused, she runs to her mother for advice and, after a brief conversation, the two of them decide to turn down his proposal. These relationship experiences make Natasha seem juvenile and inexperienced. Her relationships begin and end

During a chance encounter, Danilov and Vassily meet the beautiful and educated Tanya, a soldier in the Stalingrad home defense campaign. They both fall in love with Tanya. In an attempt to win Tanya’s love, Danilov offers Tanya a safer position within the military, however, she prefers to fight with a rifle in her hand and looks to Vassily as a hero worthy of praise. His shy uncertainty and obvious discomfort in her presence only serve to intensify their feelings for each other.

Society has a standard for everyone, depending on who one is, the standard may be higher or lower, this standard often cause people to live unhappy lives. Throughout the course of life, one finds themselves making decisions on whether to pursue their passions or adhere to society’s standards. Societal standards often force people to live a meaningless life as they are expected to behave in a certain way and do certain things. The novel, War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, depicts how Natasha Rostov’s life revolves around rationalizing what she can and cannot do as she does not want to ruin her family’s name.

“All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love” Leo Tolstoy War and Peace. As shown in Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet, and Animal Farm love is a prevailing theme over hate, however the way that love prevails comes in different forms.

The Russian attitude toward love during Chekhov’s time is very patriarchal and is considered normal to marry for practical reasons, parental pressures or other considerations rather than for love. The feelings that accompany love, such as passion and spirituality, are not a societal consideration and this institutional attitude toward human emotion is the catalyst for Chekhov’s story. When a person is deprived of love, he or she builds up a futility of life which consumes the human soul. In Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”, the readers are placed in a setting where the main character Gurov, and his love interest Anna, are given the emotional freedom to feel love toward one another. This freedom is the driving force in the story

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer and philosopher…. His famous novels are ‘War and Peace’ and ‘Anna Karenina’…. He wrote many novels and short stories…. His way of writing was very simple yet it displays the mind of the genius…. Later in his life he also wrote many plays and essays… Tolstoy’s ideas of non-violent resistance had a significant impact on Mahatma Gandhi and other political leaders…. ‘What Men Live By’ is one of the short stories of Leo Tolstoy…. It is an inspiring story as it tells us about the importance of God in our lives….

Social class in regards to Russia is represented by the usual upper, middle, and lower class system. Anton Chekhov observes the actions of the social class systems and portrays their qualities through characters and their connection to the cherry orchard. Following the abolition of serfdom in 1917, the emancipation of serfs opened a “floodgate” of pathways for serfs to chose from, which is in reference to their lives

carries him all the way back to his family and gives them all of his

Family was also well represented in Tolstoy’s book, War and Peace. In Tolstoy’s eye family is written with a harsh reality and devastating truth. Throughout the book, each family has its own problems, happy moments, deaths, marriages, and many other things. For example, the Rostov family had many ups and downs. In volume 2, Count and Countess Rostov demanded their son, Pierre Rostov to marry a rich girl to save his family from bankruptcy.

This quote helps Ibsen make statement that women need to be mature and independent before having a family of their own. Nora, ultimately, ends up packing her bags and leaving her loved ones behind to become her own independent woman. Nora states, “ I can no longer content myself with what people say, or with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get to understand them”(885). Nora leaving her family to start this process of maturing and gain independence begins to take hold. At the end of the play Ibsen again emphasizes that Nora as she is now she is not the wife for Torvald or a mother to her children (Ibsen 887). She says, “ Good-bye, Torvald. I won’t see the little ones. I know they are in better hands than mine. As I am now, I can be no use to them” (Ibsen 887). This, once again, a statement that women need to mature and be independent before they are ready for a family of their own. Nora is a prime example of this as she leaves her husband and children behind to begin this process.

The great existential thinker Thomas Negal’s essay “The Absurd” addresses the presence of absurdity in our lives. Negal believes that absurdity is a necessary condition of human existence, and that it can be found within nearly every aspect of our lives. I would like to contest that the absurdity that Negal describes is one of the primary antagonists of Leo Tolsoty’s War and Peace. Each of the main characters of Tolsoy’s magnum opus faces this absurdity, and deals with it by changing their perspective; which is exactly how Negal suggests one should. Negal’s changing of perspective is a complicated one, but at its core it’s one of changing the scale with which we measure things by. This changing of scale is a deeper theme that runs within the text and one that must be used to truly read the novel, as it is used by Tolstoy and his characters. I would like to first focus on what exactly this absurdity is and what Negals changing of perspective by scale is. Then I’ll take a look at how this change can be found within the lives of the main characters, primarily Pierre Bezukhov. And finally I will describe how this change in perspective is being used by Tolstoy on many different levels and how we can perform this ourselves to effectively interpret any text, especially Tolstoy’s as it is riddled with it.