Tolstoy introduces the concept of destiny earlier in the novel,
but he expands on his ideas about fate and the way it intervenes with humans
and their decisions during Book 9. First he talks about how nothing is the
cause of the war, it’s the sum of all these little things added up. He then talks about the characters, saying
“[every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is in an
historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of history and
predestined from eternity” (538). This
quote shows that Tolstoy believes that everybody’s path is laid out for them
and character’s decisions don’t impact their fate because it was already
planned.
Some say that Tolstoy displays himself through his
characters in his novel, but relating to his beliefs about fate I am not sure
if he does. His characters do not seem to attribute many things to fate, for
they become extremely upset at decisions others make and decisions they make
themselves. Natasha becomes physically ill after having her heart broken by
Anatole, and thinks of herself as a bad person for falling in love with him. She
doesn’t seem to attribute her actions to fate, but to her own terrible soul and
bad decisions. Prince Andrew is extremely upset at Anatole when he discovers
the situation and searches for a duel. He doesn’t attribute Natasha’s falling
in love to predestination but to Anatole’s manipulation.
I think when Tolstoy discusses fate especially when referring to the war it is to discuss the futility of pride in the high ranking militia. As seen the generals and advisors Alexander had argue about everything which is nothing in comparison to the vast world we live in and all that is unknown in it. In the novel he says great men are labels given to events and like labels they have but the "smallest connection with the event itself". Tolstoy being a very spiritual person it is easy to see even in other places in the book where he brings in the idea of a power greater than man himself. In terms of the characters though they are portrayed as humans so it is not surprising that they do not know much about fate though as we can see most of them like Andrew and Pierre and even Mary seek truth, for Mary it is the bible and christianity. Andrew we have seen has his thinking closely aligned with Tolstoy's as Andrew the man who thought of nothing greater than glory now joined the army and believes in collective power rather than it being in individual great men! Its a great discussion point you bring out :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is a great point Aminata! I like how you point out that Tolstoy uses fate to show that there is a greater power than any of the men who are on Earth in the novel. Also, I agree with your point that Andrew's thoughts are very alike with Tolstoy's compared to most of the other characters.
DeleteThis is a really interesting idea. I think that you can also see this view when he discusses the self-assurance of different countries. He says, "Russia is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want t know anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known" (568). This implies that the ideal Russian just accepts his fate. But yeah, I agree with your other point too, Sydney, how his characters don't seem to be doing this yet. Pierre might be the closest; he kinda just rolls with the punches. Maybe that will change for the other characters later though.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you brought this quote in Carson. I forgot about it and it is true that some of the characters do follow this quote, especially Pierre as you pointed out. As I was writing this entry I was thinking that Pierre was the character that contradicted it the most, because he does seem to just go along with everything.
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