Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace deeply illustrates the lives of many characters. A compelling novel, Tolstoy maintains the characters’ verisimilitude through the use of body language and conflicts. The lives of Prince Andrei and Pierre -- two foil characters -- parallel each other as they embark on their journey towards a deeper self-understanding. Through the use of details, interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts, and the subtle juxtaposition of Prince Andrei and Pierre, Leo Tolstoy is able to effectively depict in War and Peace the profound deepening of their self-understanding. In the beginning of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, both Prince Andrei and Pierre are confused and misguided in their life. Pierre, the illegitimate son of
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Tragically, Prince Andrei acquires self-understanding only in the moments before his death; through death’s looming figure, Prince Andrei is able to clearly see himself “freed of the weight of life.” The “principle of eternal love” was revealed upon staring Death in the face. Throughout the novel, Prince Andrei is characterized as a man who experiences life through fantasizing about the world around him (unlike Pierre, who, up until this point, spent most of his time indulging in the physical pleasures of life), and now, in a state of “half delirium,” finally “renounces earthly life” (p982). At the point when his earthly life is abandoned, Prince Andrei comes to the realization that “to love everything, everybody . . . meant not to live this earthly life.” This transcendentalist idea that love is a an unearthly force coincides with Andrei’s habit of living in a world removed from reality. The deepening of his self-understanding is represented by the death of his soul; he admits to himself, “Yes . . . I died,” and comes to the realization that “death is an awakening” (p985). Therefore, only through death was Andrei able to thoroughly reach self-understanding. On the contrary, whereas Prince Andrei reaches enlightenment during a high point in his life (high class in the military) and then suddenly while dying, Pierre attains a deeper self-understanding at a low point in his life. After being reduced to a beggar in captivity, he meets Karataev, who revives him from his lost faith in “the world’s good order, . . . in his own soul, and in God.” Karataev gives Pierre his first meal after being in captivity; and in the same way that he will lead Pierre to enlightenment, Karataev becomes his savior after giving him bread. Pierre admires the old man; everything about him is “pleasant, soothing, and rounded” (p969). Karataev relaxed ways of prayer and peculiar stories
Tragically, Prince Andrei acquires self-understanding only in the moments before his death; through death’s looming figure, Prince Andrei is able to clearly see himself “freed of the weight of life.” The “principle of eternal love” was revealed upon staring Death in the face. Throughout the novel, Prince Andrei is characterized as a man who experiences life through fantasizing about the world around him (unlike Pierre, who, up until this point, spent most of his time indulging in the physical pleasures of life), and now, in a state of “half delirium,” finally “renounces earthly life” (p982). At the point when his earthly life is abandoned, Prince Andrei comes to the realization that “to love everything, everybody . . . meant not to live this earthly life.” This transcendentalist idea that love is a an unearthly force coincides with Andrei’s habit of living in a world removed from reality. The deepening of his self-understanding is represented by the death of his soul; he admits to himself, “Yes . . . I died,” and comes to the realization that “death is an awakening” (p985). Therefore, only through death was Andrei able to thoroughly reach self-understanding. On the contrary, whereas Prince Andrei reaches enlightenment during a high point in his life (high class in the military) and then suddenly while dying, Pierre attains a deeper self-understanding at a low point in his life. After being reduced to a beggar in captivity, he meets Karataev, who revives him from his lost faith in “the world’s good order, . . . in his own soul, and in God.” Karataev gives Pierre his first meal after being in captivity; and in the same way that he will lead Pierre to enlightenment, Karataev becomes his savior after giving him bread. Pierre admires the old man; everything about him is “pleasant, soothing, and rounded” (p969). Karataev relaxed ways of prayer and peculiar stories