Characteristics of the Kuragin family war and peace. The Kuragin family in the novel War and Peace characterization of family members essay. General idea of ​​the Kuragin family

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Extraordinary personalities in literature, art, and indeed, in real life, often look much more attractive than respectable and honest ones. Rogues and dandies cause a feeling of envy in the representatives of their sex and admiration and love for the opposite. At the same time, everyone can perfectly know the most unattractive sides of the character of these characters, but they still flock to them like moths to the light. Anatole Kuragin from the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a classic representative of this image.

The appearance of Anatole Kuragin

All beautiful people have a similar description - they are all devoid of any distinctive external distinguishing features. His face has regular features. He differs from the rest of the aristocracy by his tall stature and slender figure (mostly the characters of Tolstoy's novel are of average height).

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the novel by Leo Tolstoy “War and Peace”

In the novel, Tolstoy describes him as insanely handsome with black-browed, but does not give a detailed description. “A man with a white forehead, black eyebrows and a ruddy mouth”, he has “beautiful big eyes” - this is where Anatole's description ends. We learn about his beauty from the reactions of other characters in the novel to him - and men and women freeze with awe when they see this young man. Exclamation: "How good!" often pursues the young Kuragin.

We know very little about his physique - during the war with Napoleon he was “a big, full man”, but it’s hard to say whether he was always such a physique.

Biography

Anatole Kuragin is the son of Vasily Sergeevich Kuragin, an aristocrat, minister and important official. In addition to Anatole, there are two more children in the Kuragin family - sister Elena and brother Ippolit.

Anatole received an excellent education abroad, because "the local upbringing is much better than ours," he allegedly studied in France. Like all aristocrats, Anatole prefers French in his everyday speech.

Unfortunately, his education did not become a guarantor of adaptability in life and the ability to correctly manage his capital and time.

In addition, there were rumors in society for a long time that Anatole had love with his sister Elena, Prince Vasily removed his son in order to avoid incest.

Anatole often comes to visit his sister and behaves in an inappropriate way for his brother - he kisses Elena's bare shoulders, gently hugs her: “Anatole went to her to borrow money from her and kissed her bare shoulders. She did not give him money, but she allowed him to kiss herself, ”so the question of whether Anatole had a love affair with his sister is a moot point.

Like most representatives of the aristocracy, Kuragin prefers military service. “During the stay of his regiment in Poland, one Polish poor landowner forced Anatole to marry his daughter. Anatole very soon abandoned his wife, and for the money that he agreed to send to his father-in-law, he reprimanded himself for the right to be reputed to be a bachelor.

No matter how Anatole hid the fact of his marriage, rumors about it still penetrated society. After Natalya Rostova found out about this, she realized that Kuragin was a deceiver and decided to commit suicide, despite her love and determined intentions to escape.

He participates in the military events of 1812 against the Napoleonic troops and is seriously injured - he has to amputate his leg. The further fate of the handsome Anatole is unknown, Tolstoy does not tell anything more about him, presumably that he died in the same 1812.

The personality and character of Anatole Kuragin

If Kuragin were the hero of a folk epic, then his constant epithet would be the word "stupid." In the novel, Tolstoy often uses such words as "fool", "blockhead" to convey. Neither education nor communication with different strata of society teaches the mind of a young nobleman - his actions still do not differ either in intelligence or ingenuity. He burns his life without thinking about his future. "He was not in a position to consider how his actions might respond to others, nor what might come out of such or such an act of his."

Kuragin loves to spend time in drinking and revelry: "He did not miss a single revelry at Danilov and other merry fellows of Moscow." "One thing he loved was fun and women." He enjoys the company of women, although he tries to show completely opposite feelings. “In addition, in dealing with women, Anatole had that manner that most of all inspires curiosity, fear and even love in women - a manner of contemptuous consciousness of his superiority.” This principle works as well as possible - the more detached he seems to women, the more attractive and desirable he looks in their eyes. He literally "drives" young ladies crazy.

Kuragin becomes the hero of all balls and drinking parties. After a fairly drunk share of alcohol, Anatole behaves very aggressively: “He wanted to break something. He pushed the footmen away and pulled the frame, but the frame did not give up. He broke the glass."

The fact of the presence of sober people in some way upsets Kuragin, he tries to get everyone present to drink. He is trying to gradually draw Bezukhov into his revelry, often making him drunk.

Surrounding people, not involved in the revelry and debauchery of Kuragin, directly speak of him as a "real robber", as well as his friend Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov. A distinctive feature that causes favor to Dolokhov in society is his ability to take an advantageous position, speak eloquently and clearly. Despite a much better level of knowledge, Anatole is deprived of such skills - he sometimes hardly knows how to express his thoughts, and there is nothing to say about poetic or lyrical speech. "Anatole was not resourceful, not quick and not eloquent in conversations."

Anatole used to live in a big way. An idle life requires numerous financial costs, which Kuragin often lacks, for a full life, but this fact does not upset a young person endowed with an optimistic perception of reality. When there is not enough money for carousing and feasting, Anatole borrows money, but at the same time, not only is he in no hurry to return the borrowed money, but he is not even going to activate the return in any way. "He lived on over twenty thousand a year in money and as much in debt as creditors demanded from his father." Naturally, this state of affairs did not suit the father and became the cause of his discontent, especially since the son's appetite continued to grow inexorably. Over time, Prince Vasily ceases to hide his helplessness in the face of the current situation: “This Anatole costs me forty thousand a year,” he said, apparently unable to restrain the sad course of his thoughts. Anatole Kuragin's debts have no end in sight, this state of affairs forces the father to make a cruel verdict, the father decides to no longer pay debts instead of his son, he "pays half of his debts for the last time."

Kuragin is a person with a cheerful disposition. “He looked upon his whole life as an uninterrupted amusement.”

Kuragin is not interested in either career growth or the arrangement of his life, he prefers to live one day, wants his life to always be like a holiday.

Self-confidence and complacency are other components of his character. He suffers from high self-esteem. “In his soul, he considered himself an impeccable person, sincerely despised scoundrels and bad people, and with a clear conscience carried his head high.”

In fact, he did not go far from these very "scoundrels". It is dominated by feelings of tactlessness, meanness. He is a bastard, what else you need to look for. He takes advantage of Natalya Rostova's inexperience and naivety and incites her to escape.

In the image of Anatole Kuragin, it is difficult to find positive character traits.

Among these, perhaps, one can partially rank generosity, which becomes more of a vice than a noble feeling, because Kuragin's generosity is aimed at arranging booze and fun for himself and his friends. You won’t find Kuragin’s talents either during the day with fire: he doesn’t have musical or choreographic talents, he doesn’t differ in either the ability to conduct a conversation or determination. It seems that the only thing the young man has succeeded in is drunken revelry and love affairs. And the latter sometimes become a partial merit of other people. So, for example, sister Elena writes a letter to Natalya, instead of a negligent and unable to speak beautifully brother, Dolokhov comes up with a plan for Natalya and Anatole to escape.

Military service of Anatole Kuragin

Like most young people, Anatole Kuragin is in military service. At first he serves in the guards, then becomes an employee in the army. He is not attracted to career advancement. His father takes care of his promotions, who, thanks to his connections, was able to provide his son "with the position of adjutant to the commander in chief."

Anatole prefers to live one day, he is depressing by the thought that he needs to plan something or achieve something in life (if this is not an appreciation of a new passion).

Tolstoy says little about how Kuragin showed himself at the front. It is likely that in this way the author wanted to emphasize Kuragin's apathy and indifference to everything that had nothing to do with celebrations, drunkenness and debauchery.

Anatole Kuragin and Princess Maria Bolkonskaya

Anatole sees nothing shameful in a marriage of convenience. “Why not marry if she is very rich? It never gets in the way,” says the young man. He believes that the world should not end with a spouse, there are always a lot of pretty women in society with whom you can make up for the lack of intimate life. It is this position of his that becomes the reason for the matchmaking with Princess Bolkonskaya.

Anatole and his father are heading to the Bald Mountains to woo a young girl.

For the Bolkonskys, their visit was like a bomb explosion - it brought a lot of fuss to their lives. Despite the fact that Kuragin is an extremely unpromising groom, the issue of refusing to marry has not yet been finally resolved.

Princess Marie is extremely unattractive, she is not popular in society, and therefore the girl has no suitors. She has every opportunity to remain an old maid. The Bolkonskys are aware of this, and the girl herself too. She is in no hurry to throw herself into the arms of Kuragin, but nevertheless preens and dresses up for his arrival. For Princess Marie, not spoiled by the attention of men, the meeting with Anatole was very exciting.

“His beauty struck her. Anatole put the thumb of his right hand behind the buttoned button of his uniform, with his chest arched forward, and back with his back, shaking one leg aside and slightly bowing his head in silence, he cheerfully looked at the princess, apparently not thinking about her at all.

At this time, only two thoughts were spinning in Anatole's head. The first was that the princess was unusually ugly. The second was a complete contradiction to her, but was directed not at Bolkonskaya, but at her companion, to whom Kuragin more and more begins to experience "a passionate, bestial feeling that came over him with extreme speed and prompted him to the most rude and bold deeds" . Young Marie could not predict these thoughts, but her father was more insightful - he was dumbfounded by such behavior of a potential groom. Chance helped cut the Gordian knot. Marie witnesses an unpleasant scene. “She looked up and saw Anatole two steps away from her, who was hugging a Frenchwoman and whispering something to her.” Kuragin fails to get out of this situation. He gets rejected.

Natalia Rostova and Anatole Kuragin

Anatole Kuragin caused the broken hearts of more than one girl. In the case of Natalya Rostova, his love pranks almost turned into a tragedy in the girl's life.

Anatole successfully uses his beauty in order to arouse a reciprocal feeling in a young girl, and he easily succeeds - the trusting Natalya sincerely believes in Kuragin's integrity.

Does Anatole love Natalya? Doubtful, probably not. For Kuragin, this is another prank and a way to harm Prince Andrei.

For the first time, young people met at the opera. Anatole became interested in a young girl and asked his sister to introduce them. Elena gladly fulfills his request. “He, almost smiling, looked straight into her eyes with such an admiring, affectionate look that it seemed strange to be so close to him, to look at him like that, to be so sure that he likes you, and not to be familiar with him.” Kuragin manages to easily win the girl's heart.

He is very handsome, and Natalia has no experience in dealing with young people of the opposite sex.

Kuragin's open intentions, his undisguised carnal desire in relation to her excites the girl's mind. It becomes a reason to experience new emotions and feelings. The excitement that Natalya experiences in relation to Kuragin frightens her and pleasantly pleases her at the same time. Rostova "felt terribly close to this man." At the time of meeting Kuragin, the girl was already engaged to Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. This engagement was not an act of violence, Natalya was not disgusted by the upcoming wedding. And the very personality of the prince was sweet and charming for a girl. The point here was the behavior of young people. Prince Andrei acts within the framework of etiquette, he does not want to embarrass Natalya with his carnal desires. He's too perfect. Anatole, on the contrary, neglects these rules, which causes interest and curiosity on the part of the girl.

Rostova perceives Anatole's feelings as reality. She does not realize that this is another deception on his part. Kuragin, spurred on by intrigue and excited, cannot stop. With the help of his sister, he writes a letter to Natalya, where he reveals to the girl his seemingly arisen feelings of love and affection, agitating her to escape. This letter reached the desired goal - Natalya refuses Bolkonsky and prepares to flee with Kuragin. Fortunately for the girl, these plans were not destined to come true. The escape failed, Natalya still has hope - she believes that love can overcome all obstacles, but this hope was not destined to come true. At a time when Rostova was exhausted from excitement, Kuragin was calmly driving around in a sleigh: “His face was ruddy and fresh, a hat with a white plume was worn on its side, revealing curled, oiled and showered with fine snow hair.” He has no remorse or shame.

Pierre Bezukhov also takes the grief of Natasha Rostova's love letter. Relatives quickly send Anatole from Moscow in order to avoid new troubles.

Over time, the girl learns that Anatole was married at all, so he could not marry her. Her feelings for Anatole are strong, at the same time she realizes that she was cruelly deceived, in desperation the girl drinks arsenic, but the desired effect cannot be achieved - she confesses to her deed, and Natalya is saved.

Anatole Kuragin and Prince Andrei

Naturally, the relatives themselves tried to stop rumors about Anatol Kuragin's act towards Natalya Rostova, both from Natalya's side and from Anatole's side - the disclosure of such a truth would play a negative role on the reputation of both families.

Families began to wait for the reaction of Bolkonsky, who could make the information public.

Prince Andrei is overwhelmed with feelings. He feels humiliated and insulted. Due to the bad and ignoble behavior of Kuragin, Bolkonsky got into a stupid situation - Natalya Rostova refuses to marry him. Since Andrei has the most tender feelings for the girl, such a refusal becomes a heavy blow to his pride. Despite all the absurdity of what is happening, Bolkonsky understands that the situation cannot be replayed, even if Natalya herself has already realized all her mistake and wants to become Bolkonsky's wife.
“Prince Andrei left for Petersburg on business, as he told his relatives, but, in essence, in order to meet there Prince Anatole Kuragin, whom he considered necessary to meet.” Bolkonsky wants to take revenge on Kuragin and challenge him to a duel.

Andrei is able to think sensibly even in such a situation, so he does not write letters to Anatole (this can compromise Natalya), but chases Kuragin.

This race ends in a military hospital, where Bolkonsky is brought after being wounded. Prince Andrei among the wounded sees a familiar silhouette. “In the unfortunate, sobbing, exhausted man, who had just taken away his leg, he recognized Anatol Kuragin.” Neither Bolkonsky, nor Kuragin are no longer able to settle personal scores. Yes, and this is no longer necessary - Bolkonsky lets go of resentment, he forgives Anatole.

Thus, Anatole Kuragin in the text is an absolute negative. He has almost no positive character traits. He is not distinguished by either mental abilities, or ingenuity, or valor on the battlefield. Kuragin has no purpose in life, he is accustomed to go with the flow without planning his life. First of all, he is a puppet, but not in the hands of relatives, as is often the case, but in the hands of his rowdy friends, in particular Dolokhov. It is Dolokhov who comes up with a plan to escape Kuragin and Rostova, incites Anatole to new pranks and stupidities. The personality of Anatole Kuragin brings negativity towards everyone with whom the young man comes into contact.

"War and Peace" is one of the most monumental works of Russian literature and, without a doubt, the best creation of L.N. Tolstoy. The novel covers a period of almost a decade, shows the fate of entire generations, and special attention is paid to portraits of families. Extremely interesting is the comparison of Bolkonsky and Kuragin.

Despite the fact that both families come from a noble family, the ideas that there is a family and the true values ​​​​of the Bolkonskys and Kuragins differ greatly. However, first about the similarities - in addition to the obvious noble origin, they are united by the fact that the heads of the family were left without their wives. Both Vasily Kuragin and Nikolai Bolkonsky were forced to take care of the children on their own. The entire burden of parental care fell on their shoulders, and they tried their best to make their offspring happy. True, their ideas about the benefits are completely different.

The Bolkonsky family in the novel is represented by Nikolai Bolkonsky, his son Andrei and daughter Marya. Nikolai is a military man, of strict morals and strict discipline, which is manifested in everything. He sincerely loves his children, but often he simply does not know how to show this love. Therefore, although his words sometimes deeply hurt them, both Marya and Andrey know that in fact the father is ready to give his life for them, just as he would give for the Motherland.

The attitude towards Russia occupies a special place. Despite the fact that Nikolai Bolkonsky retired from military service long ago, he never ceases to worry about the fate of the state and people. For him, true values ​​are duty to the Motherland, courage, honor, following traditions and maintaining self-esteem.

Prince Andrei is very similar to his father. He was not looking for easy fame and money, so although he had the opportunity to join the army in a higher rank than adjutant, he did not take advantage of it. I got used, like my father, to achieve everything with my own work. Bolkonsky's sense of patriotism was so great that he asked Kutuzov to send him to a detachment that had received a deadly assignment. Prince Andrei could not be on the sidelines, he wanted to be at the forefront and decide the fate of his country on his own.

Giving all of himself to Russia, Bolkonsky was somewhat stingy in showing feelings with his family. Before the "little princess", as L.N. Tolstoy Lisa Bolkonskaya - the wife of the prince, Andrei feels guilty. She gave life to his son and died in the process. However, the meeting with Natasha Rostova seemed to revive the extinguished fire of love of life in the prince, however, it was in relations with her that the nature of Bolkonsky was even more emphasized. They were completely different.

Marya Bolkonskaya always saw the meaning of life in arranging someone else's happiness. Throughout the novel, she performs many deeds for the benefit of others, in some ways sacrificing her own interests. However, in the end, her extraordinary kindness, meekness and good disposition were rewarded, and she found true female happiness with Nikolai, the brother of Natasha Rostova. Marya is also very religious, she believes in God and lives according to his commandments.

If the best human qualities are concentrated in the Bolkonsky family, then the Kuragins are completely different. Vasily is an official, and therefore an arrogant attitude for him is a behavioral norm. He loves intrigues, skillfully weaves them, which he taught all the children. Vices accompany Vasily Kuragin and his entire family.

Teaching children, he makes them similar to himself - envious, greedy and ready for anything to achieve his goal. Only one of his children, namely Hippolyte, is not very well versed in secular society. He, like other relatives, is proud and self-confident, but this is combined with stupidity, so Hippolyte often becomes the subject of ridicule.

Other children of Vasily - Helen and Anatole were much more successful in the world. Helen is a real beauty, but her soul is extremely ugly. By deception, she lures Pierre Bezukhov into the network of marriage, and then cheats on him with his friend. The only thing that interests her is money and admiring her own person.

Helen is a real whore, and although the whole world knows about it, she was willingly received at receptions. Anatole, to match his sister, made a splash with his appearance. A ladies' man, a narcissist who sees life only as a series of continuous pleasures - these are the words that accurately characterize him. For him there is no concept of honor, it is just an empty phrase.

First, he breaks Princess Mary's heart when, having promised to marry, he starts an affair with her own maid, and then entices Natasha Rostova, knowing full well that she was promised to another. In a situation where Andrei Bolkonsky would show respect and retain not only his honor and dignity, but those of others involved in it, Anatole acts differently. He goes on about his own desires, without thinking about the consequences.

In the novel "War and Peace" there are no two more different families than the Kuragins and the Bolkonskys. Some stand up for honor, justice, help to their neighbor, personifying all the best that is in Russia and Russian people, while others are the embodiment of vice, all the worst. L.N. Tolstoy makes it clear what true values ​​are and how he relates to them.

It traces the fate of the heroes. None of the Kuragin family was ever truly happy, and Helen and Anatole suffered a very tragic fate, while the Bolkonsky family found happiness. Some knew him already on the verge of death, but even this is a great honor.

It was not in vain that the writer so clearly outlined the features of the kindest and brightest and contrasted them with everything bad, L.N. Tolstoy seemed to want to show that he introduced the Kuragin family, and there is a representative of the Bolkonsky family in each of us. However, who to be is up to the individual to decide. One has only to remember that every evil is punishable, and good is rewarded.

For Tolstoy, the world of the family is the basis of human society. The Kuragin family in the novel appears as the embodiment of immorality. Greed, hypocrisy, the ability to commit crime, dishonor for the sake of wealth, irresponsibility for one's actions in personal life - these are the main distinguishing features of this family. Among the characters of "War and Peace" Kuragins live, knowing all over the world only their personal interest and

energetically seeking him by intrigue. And how much destruction the Kuragins brought - Prince Vasily, Helen, Anatole - into the life of Pierre, the Rostovs, Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky!

Kuragins are devoid of generic poetry. Their family closeness and connection is unpoetic, although it undoubtedly exists - instinctive mutual support and solidarity, a kind of mutual guarantee of almost animal egoism. Such a family connection is not a positive, real family connection, but, in essence, its negation. Real families - the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys - have, of course, against the Kuragins on their side an immeasurable moral superiority; but all the same, the invasion of base Kuragin egoism causes a crisis in the world of these families.

The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize moral standards, living according to the unchanging law of fulfilling their insignificant desires.

Vasily Kuragin

The head of this entire family is Prince Vasily Kuragin. For the first time we meet him in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. He was "in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, in shoes and stars, with a bright expression of a flat face." The prince spoke in that exquisite French language, which our grandfathers not only spoke, but also thought, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that are characteristic of an aged person in high society and at court, a significant person, "" always spoke lazily, as an actor says a role old play."

In the eyes of secular society, Prince Kuragin is a respected person, "close to the emperor, surrounded by a crowd of enthusiastic women, scattering secular courtesies and chuckling complacently." In words he was a decent, sympathetic person, but in fact he constantly had an internal struggle between the desire to appear a decent person and the actual depravity of his motives.

Tolstoy's favorite technique is the opposition of the internal and external characters of the characters. The image of Prince Vasily very clearly reflects this opposition.

The episode of the struggle for the inheritance of the old Count Bezukhov most accurately reveals the two-faced essence of Vasily Kuragin.

The prince forced Pierre to marry Helen, while pursuing his own selfish goals. To Anna Pavlovna Scherer's proposal to "marry the prodigal son Anatole" to Princess Maria Bolkonskaya, having learned that the princess is a rich heiress, he says: "She has a good surname and is rich. Everything I need." At the same time, Prince Vasily does not at all think about the fact that Princess Marya may be unhappy in marriage with the dissolute varmint Anatole, who looked at his whole life as one continuous amusement.

Absorbed all the vile, vicious traits of Prince Vasily and his children.

Helen Kuragina

Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal emptiness, a fossil. Tolstoy constantly mentions her "monotonous", "unchanging" smile and "ancient beauty of the body", she resembles a beautiful, soulless statue.

Helen personifies immorality and depravity, marries only for the sake of her own enrichment.

She is cheating on her husband, because her nature is dominated by the animal nature. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless.

Still, being the wife of Pierre, Helen, in front of the eyes of the whole society, is arranging her personal life.

Helen Bezukhova is not a woman, she is rather an animal. Not a single novelist has yet met this type of harlot of high society, who loves nothing in life except her body. In addition to a luxurious bust, a rich and beautiful body, this representative of the big world had an extraordinary ability to hide her mental and moral squalor, and all this was due only to the elegance of her manners and the memorization of some phrases and techniques.

As Helen said, in the world after the duel and departure, everyone considered Pierre a naive fool. She again began to live with her husband and created her own salon.

"Being accepted into the salon of Countess Bezukhova was considered a diploma of the mind." This unspeakably surprised Pierre, who knew that Helen was very stupid. But she was so good at teaching herself that no one thought about it.

She also played a negative role in the fate of Natasha Rostova. For fun, an empty whim, Helen ruined the life of a young girl, pushing her to treason, and did not even think about it.

Helen is completely devoid of patriotic feelings. While the whole country rose up to fight against Napoleon, and even the high society took part in this struggle in their own way ("they did not speak French and ate simple food"), rumors about the cruelty of the enemy and war and all Napoleon's attempts at reconciliation were discussed. "When the threat of the seizure of Moscow by Napoleon's troops became clear, Helen went abroad. And there she shone at the imperial court. But now the court returns to Petersburg. "Helen, having returned with the court from Vilna to Petersburg , was in a difficult position. In St. Petersburg, Helen enjoyed the special patronage of a nobleman who occupied one of the highest positions in the state.

In Vilna, she became close to a young foreign prince.

For her own good, she betrays the most sacred - faith, accepts Catholicism. By this, as it seemed to her, she freed herself from the moral obligations given to Pierre, becoming his wife. Helen decides to link her fate with one of her two admirers. At the beginning of August, everything was completely decided, and she wrote a letter to her husband (who she thought was very fond of her) in which she informed him of her intention to marry NN and that she asked to complete all the necessary formalities for a divorce. But Pierre did not receive a letter, he was at war.

While waiting for a response from Pierre, Helen was idly passing the time. She still shone in the world, accepted the courtship of young people, despite the fact that she was already about to marry one of the most influential nobles, but, unfortunately, an old man.

In the end, Helen dies. This death is a direct consequence of her own intrigues.

Ippolit Kuragin

"... Prince Hippolyte struck with his extraordinary resemblance to his beautiful sister, and even more so because, despite the resemblance, he was strikingly ugly ... his face was hazy with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident disgust, and his body was thin and weak. Eyes, nose, mouth - everything was compressed as if into one indefinite boring grimace, and the arms and legs always assumed an unnatural position.

Hippolyte was extraordinarily stupid. Due to the self-confidence with which he spoke, no one could understand whether what he said was very smart or very stupid.

At the reception at Scherer, he appears to us "in a dark green tailcoat, in pantaloons the color of a frightened nymph, as he himself said, in stockings and shoes." And such an absurd outfit did not bother him at all.

Despite the strangeness of his character, Prince Hippolyte was successful with women and was a ladies' man. So at the end of the evening in the living room Scherer, Ippolit, as if innocently caring for the little princess, Bolkonsky's wife, arouses the jealousy of the prince.

Father Prince Vasily calls Ippolit " a dead fool " . Tolstoy in the novel is "sluggish and breaking".

These are the dominant character traits of Hippolytus. Hippolyte is stupid, but at least he does not harm anyone with his stupidity, unlike his younger brother Anatole.

Anatole Kuragin

Anatole Kuragin, according to Tolstoy, "simple and with carnal inclinations." These are the dominant character traits of Anatole. He looked at his whole life as a continuous amusement that someone like that for some reason undertook to arrange for him.

"He was not in a position to consider how his actions might respond to others, nor what might come out of such or such an act of his." He is sincerely convinced, instinctively, with his whole being, that everything around him has the sole purpose of entertainment and exists for this. No looking back at people, their opinions, the consequences, no long-term goal that would force them to focus on achieving it, no remorse, reflection, hesitation, doubt - Anatole, no matter what he does, naturally and sincerely considers himself an impeccable person and highly bears its beautiful head: truly limitless freedom, freedom in actions and self-awareness.

Such complete freedom is given to Anatole by his senselessness. A person who consciously relates to life is already subject, like Pierre, to the need to understand and decide, he is not free from life's complexities, from the question: why? While Pierre is tormented by this difficult question, Anatole lives, content with every minute, stupid, animalistic, but easy and fun.

Marriage to the "rich ugly heiress" - Maria Bolkonskaya seems to him to be another amusement.

He and his father come to the Bald Mountains to get married.

Marya and her father feel offended by the excitement that the arrival of the prospective bridegroom has caused in them, and which they cannot overcome in themselves.

The beautiful big eyes of the fool Anatole "attract to themselves, and Princess Mary, and the little princess, and m-lle Bourienne do not remain indifferent to the beauty of Kuragin. Everyone wants to appear before him in the best light. But for Princess Mary it seems insulting that she is forced to dress up and behave not in accordance with their habits. The longer the friends picked up the outfits, the less the princess wanted to meet Anatole. She understood that now she was being put on display, that she could not interest anyone with her appearance, and the more inappropriate the efforts of her friends seemed to her So having achieved nothing, the friends left the princess alone.She not only did not change her outfit, but did not even look at herself in the mirror.

Anatole, drawing attention to the pretty m-lle Bourienne, decided that it would not be boring in the Bald Mountains either.

In a conversation with the father of Princess Mary, Anatole again proves himself to be a complete fool, a reckless rake.

Anatole seemed to Princess Marya kind, brave, resolute, courageous and generous. She was convinced of it. Thousands of dreams about a future family life arose in her imagination. Anatole thought: "Poor thing! Damn bad."

M-lle Bourienne thought that this Russian prince would take her away and marry her.

Anatole was not at all interested in the princess as a person; he needed her rich dowry.

While Princess Marya went to her father at the usual hour, Mlle Bourienne and Anatole met in the winter garden.

After a conversation with her father, the princess went to her room through the winter garden and saw Anatole passionately embracing m lle Bourienne.

When the father and Prince Vasily invited Princess Marya to give an answer, she said: "I thank you for the honor, but I will never be your son's wife."

Prince Vasily, thanks to Anatole's reckless behavior, was left with nothing.

In St. Petersburg, Anatole led the life of a riotous rake. A gambling society gathered in his house, after which there was usually a drinking bout. He leads the good-natured, trusting Pierre astray with his feigned simplicity.

Anatole also played a negative role in the fate of Natasha Rostova. His vile, vicious desire to instantly have what he wants, regardless of the interests of others, led to Natasha's break with Prince Andrei, brought mental suffering to the families of the Rostovs and Bolkonskys.

Knowing that Natasha is engaged to Prince Andrei, Anatole nevertheless confesses his love to her. What could come out of this courtship, Anatole could not know, since he never knew what would come out of his every act. In a letter to Natasha, he says that either she will love him or he will die. And if Natasha says "yes", he will kidnap her and take her to the ends of the earth. Impressed by this letter, Natasha refuses Prince Andrei and agrees to escape with Kuragin. But the escape failed, Natasha's note fell into the wrong hands, and the kidnapping plan failed.

The next day, in a conversation with Natasha, Pierre revealed to her that Anatole was married, so all his promises were a lie. Then Bezukhov went to Anatole and demanded that he return Natasha's letters and leave Moscow. The next day Anatole left for Petersburg.

Having learned about Natasha's betrayal and about the role of Anatole in this, Prince Andrei was going to challenge him to a duel and searched for him for a long time throughout the army. But when he met Anatole, whose leg had just been taken away, Prince Andrei remembered everything, and enthusiastic pity for this man filled his heart. He forgave him everything.

Family
Prince Vasily Kuragin.
For Tolstoy, the world of the family is the basis of human
society. The Kuragin family in the novel appears as the embodiment of immorality.
Greed, hypocrisy, the ability to commit crime, dishonor for the sake of wealth,
irresponsibility for their actions in their personal lives - these are the main distinguishing
features of this family.
And how much destruction Kuragins brought - prince
Vasily, Helen, Anatole - into the life of Pierre, the Rostovs, Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky!
Kuragins - the third family association in the novel -
devoid of generic poetry. Their familial closeness and connection is unpoetic, although she,
undoubtedly there is - instinctive mutual support and solidarity, a kind of
the mutual guarantee of almost animal egoism. This family connection is not positive,
a real family connection, but, in essence, its denial. Real families -
Rostovs, Bolkonskys - they, of course, have against the Kuragins on their side
immeasurable moral superiority; but still an intrusion
low Kuragin egoism causes a crisis in the world of these families.
The whole Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize
moral norms, living according to the immutable law of the fulfillment of their insignificant
desires.

Prince Vasily Kuragin The head of this entire family is Prince Vasily
Kuragin. For the first time we meet Prince Vasily in the salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. He
was "in a court, embroidered uniform, in stockings, in shoes and stars, with
bright expression of a flat face. "The prince spoke" in
that exquisite French, which was not only spoken, but also thought
our grandfathers, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that
characteristic of an aged person in high society and at court, a significant person, "" said
always lazily, as an actor says the role of an old play. "In the eyes of secular society, the prince
Kuragin - a respected person, "close to the emperor, surrounded by a crowd
enthusiastic women, scattering social courtesies and complacently
chuckling". In words, he was a decent, sympathetic person,
but in reality there was an internal struggle going on in him between desire
to seem like a decent person and the actual depravity of his motives.
Prince Vasily "knew that influence in the world is capital that needs to be
take care that he does not disappear, and once realizing that if he begins to ask for
everyone who asks him, then soon he will not be able to ask for himself, he rarely
used this influence." But, at the same time, he
sometimes felt remorse. So, in the case of Princess Drubetskaya, he
felt "something like a pangs of conscience", as she reminded him
that "he owed his first steps in the service to her father." Prince Vasily is not alien to his father's feelings, although
they are expressed rather in the desire to "attach"
their children, rather than give them fatherly love and warmth. According to Anna Pavlovna
Scherer, people like the prince shouldn't have children.
"…And why
will children be born to people like you? If you were not a father, I
I wouldn't be able to reproach you for anything." To which the prince replied: "What
should I do? You know, I did everything for their education.
maybe father." Prince
forced Pierre to marry Helen, while pursuing his own selfish goals. At the proposal of Anna Pavlovna Sherer "to marry
prodigal son Anatole" on Princess Maria Bolkonskaya,
learning that the princess is a rich heiress, he says:
"she
good name and rich. All I need." At the same time, Prince Vasily
does not think at all that Princess Marya may be unhappy in marriage
with the dissolute varmint Anatole, who looked at his whole life as one
continuous entertainment.
Absorbed all the vile, vicious traits of the prince
Vasily and his children.

Helen Kuragina
Helen is the embodiment of external beauty and internal
voids, fossils. Tolstoy constantly mentions her "monotonous", "unchanging"
smile and "ancient beauty of the body", she resembles a beautiful,
soulless statue. Helene Scherer enters the salon "noisy with her white ballroom
robe, trimmed with ivy and moss, and shining with the whiteness of the shoulders, the gloss of the hair and
diamonds, passed without looking at anyone, but smiling at everyone and, as if kindly
giving everyone the right to admire the beauty of their camp, full of shoulders, very
open in the then fashion, chest and back, and as if bringing with it a shine
bala. Helen was so beautiful that not only was there no shadow in her
coquetry, but, on the contrary, she seemed ashamed of her undoubted and
overpowering beauty. She seemed to want and could not belittle
actions of this beauty.
Helen personifies immorality and depravity.
The whole Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize any moral standards,
living according to the immutable law of the fulfillment of their insignificant desires. Helen enters
married only for their own enrichment.
She is cheating on her husband because her nature is dominated by
animal origin. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless. "I
not such a fool to have children," she admits. Still,
being the wife of Pierre, Helen, in front of the eyes of the whole society, is arranging
his personal life.
In addition to a magnificent bust, a rich and beautiful body,
this representative of the big world had an extraordinary ability to hide
their mental and moral poverty, and all this thanks only to the grace
her manners and memorization of some phrases and techniques. Shamelessness manifested in her
under such grandiose high-society forms, which aroused in others a little
whether not respect.
Helen is completely devoid of patriotic feelings. At that
while the whole country rose up to fight against Napoleon, and even the high society
took part in this struggle in his own way ("they did not speak French and
ate simple food"), in Helen's circle, Rumyantsev, French, were refuted
rumors about the cruelty of the enemy and the war and discussed all of Napoleon's attempts to
reconciliation."
When the threat of the seizure of Moscow by Napoleonic troops
became clear, Helen went abroad. And there she shone at the imperial
yard. But now the court returns to St. Petersburg.
"Helen,
having returned together with the court from Vilna to Petersburg, she was in
predicament. In Petersburg, Helen enjoyed a special
patronage of a nobleman who occupied one of the highest positions in the state.
In the end, Helen dies. This death is direct
a consequence of her own intrigues. "Countess Elena Bezukhova
died suddenly from ... a terrible disease, which is commonly called chest
a sore throat, but in intimate circles they talked about how the queen's life doctor
Spanish prescribed Helen small doses of some kind of medicine to work
known action; but like Helen, tormented by the fact that the old count
suspected her, and the fact that the husband to whom she wrote (this unfortunate depraved
Pierre), did not answer her, suddenly took a huge dose of the medicine prescribed for her and
died in agony before help could be given."
Ippolit Kuragin.
"... Prince Ippolit struck with his
extraordinary resemblance to her beautiful sister, and even more so that despite
resemblance, he was strikingly ugly. His facial features were the same as those of
sister, but that everything was lit up with a cheerful, self-satisfied, young,
unchanging smile and extraordinary, ancient beauty of the body. Brother, on the other hand,
his face, too, was hazy with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident
disgust, and the body was thin and weak. Eyes, nose, mouth - everything shrank like
as if in one indefinite boring grimace, and arms and legs always took
unnatural position.
Hippolyte was extraordinarily stupid. Because of self-confidence
with whom he spoke, no one could understand whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.
At the reception at Scherer, he appears to us "in
dark green tailcoat, in trousers the color of a frightened nymph, as he himself said, in
stockings and shoes." And such an absurdity of attire
did not bother.
His stupidity was manifested in the fact that he sometimes
spoke, and then understood what he said. Hippolyte often spoke and acted
inappropriately, expressed his opinions when they were of no use to anyone. He
liked to insert into the conversation phrases that were completely unrelated to the essence of the discussion
themes.
The character of Hippolytus can serve as a living example of
that even positive idiocy is sometimes presented in the world as something that has
value due to the gloss attached to the knowledge of the French language, and the fact
the extraordinary property of this language to support and at the same time mask
spiritual emptiness.
Prince Vasily calls Ippolit "the deceased
fool". Tolstoy in the novel - "sluggish and breaking."
These are the dominant character traits of Hippolytus. Hippolyte is stupid, but he
stupidity at least does not harm anyone, unlike his younger brother
Anatole.

Anatole Kuragin.
Anatole Kuragin, according to Tolstoy, "a simple
and with carnal inclinations." These are the dominant features
character of Anatole. He looked at his whole life as a continuous amusement,
which someone such for some reason undertook to arrange for him. The author's characterization of Anatole is as follows:
"He was not
is able to think neither about how his actions may respond to others, nor
what can come out of such or such an act of his."
Anatole is entirely free from consideration
responsibility and consequences of what he does. His selfishness is direct,
animal-naive and good-natured, absolute egoism, for he is not constrained by anything
Anatole inside, in consciousness, feeling. It's just that Kuragin is deprived of the ability to know
what will happen after that moment of his pleasure, and how it will affect his life
other people, as others see. All this does not exist for him at all.
He is sincerely convinced, instinctively, with all his being, that everything around has
its sole purpose is entertainment and exists for that. No regard for
people, on their opinion, on the consequences, no distant goal that would force
focus on achieving it, no remorse, reflection,
hesitation, doubt - Anatole, no matter what he does, naturally and sincerely
considers himself an impeccable person and carries his beautiful head high: freedom is truly unlimited, freedom in actions and self-awareness.
Such complete freedom was given to Anatole by his
meaninglessness. A man who is conscious of life is already subject, as
Pierre, the need to understand and decide, he is not free from life's difficulties, from
question: why? While Pierre is tormented by this difficult question,
Anatole lives, content with every minute, stupid, animalistic, but easy and
fun.
Marrying a "rich ugly heiress" -
Maria Bolkonskaya seems to him another amusement. "BUT
why not marry if she is very rich? It never gets in the way."
thought Anatole.

Among the characters of "War and Peace" Kuragins live according to these laws, knowing all over the world only their personal interest and energetically seeking it with intrigue. And how much destruction the Kuragins brought - Prince Vasily, Helen, Anatole - into the life of Pierre, the Rostovs, Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky!

Kuragins - the third family association in the novel - are devoid of generic poetry. Their family closeness and connection is unpoetic, although it undoubtedly exists - instinctive mutual support and solidarity, a kind of mutual guarantee of almost animal egoism. Such a family connection is not a positive, real family connection, but, in essence, its negation. Real families - the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys - have, of course, against the Kuragins on their side an immeasurable moral superiority; but all the same, the invasion of base Kuragin egoism causes a crisis in the world of these families.

The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize moral standards, living according to the unchanging law of the fulfillment of their insignificant desires.

The family is the basis of human society. The writer expresses in the Kuragins all the immorality that prevailed in noble families in those days.

Kuragins are selfish, hypocritical, selfish people. They are ready to commit any crimes for the sake of wealth and fame. All their actions are committed to achieve their personal goals. They destroy the lives of other people and use them as they want. Natasha Rostova, Ippolit, Pierre Bezukhov - all those people who suffered because of the “evil family.” The members of the Kuragins themselves are connected not by love, warmth and care, but by purely solidarity relations.

The author uses the antithesis technique when creating the Kuragin family. They are only able to destroy. Anatole causes a break between Natasha and Andrey, who sincerely love each other; Helen almost breaks Pierre's life, plunging him into an abyss of lies and falsehood. They are deceitful, selfish and calm. They all endure the shame of matchmaking easily. Anatole is only slightly annoyed by the unsuccessful attempt to take Natasha away. Only once will their “restraint” change them: Helen will scream in fear of being killed by Pierre, and her brother will cry like a woman, having lost her leg. Their calmness comes from indifference to everyone except themselves. Anatole is a dandy, "who wears a beautiful head high." In dealing with women, he had a contemptuous sense of superiority. How accurately Tolstoy defines this pomposity and importance of the face and figure in the absence of intelligence (“he didn’t think much at all”) in the children of Prince Vasil! Their spiritual callousness, meanness will be branded by the most honest and delicate Pierre, and therefore the accusation will sound from his lips, like a shot: “Where you are, there is depravity and evil.”

They are alien to Tolstoy's ethics. We know that children are happiness, the meaning of life, life itself. But the Kuragins are selfish, they are closed only on themselves. Nothing will be born from them, because in a family one must be able to give warmth and care to others. They only know how to take: “I'm not a fool to give birth to children,” says Helen. Shamefully, as she lived, Helen will end her life on the pages of the novel.

Everything in the Kuragin family is the opposite of the Bolkonsky family. In the house of the latter, there is a trusting, homely atmosphere and the sparkling of the word: “darling”, “friend”, “darling”, “my friend”. Vasil Kuragin also calls his daughter "my dear child." But this is insincere, and therefore ugly. Tolstoy himself will say: "There is no beauty where there is no truth."

In his novel War and Peace, Tolstoy showed us an ideal family (Bolkonsky) and a formal family (Kuragins). And Tolstoy's ideal is a patriarchal family with its holy care of the elders for the younger and the younger for the elders, with the ability of everyone in the family to give more than to take, with relationships built on “goodness and truth”. Everyone should strive for this. After all, happiness is in the family.

In the novel "War and Peace", the description of the Kuragin family can be made from the image of various actions of members of this family.

The Kuragin family is rather a formality, a group of spiritually close people, united together by predatory instincts. For Tolstoy, family, home and children are life, happiness and the meaning of life. But the Kuragin family is the complete opposite of the author's ideal, because they are empty, selfish and narcissistic.

First, Prince Vasily tries to steal the will of Count Bezukhov, after which, almost by deceit, his daughter Helen marries Pierre and mocks his kindness and naivety.

No better and Anatole, who tried to seduce Natasha Rostova.

Yes, and Hippolyte appears in the novel in the form of an extremely unpleasant strange man, whose "face was clouded with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident disgust, and his body was thin and weak."

False, calculating, low people who bring destruction to the lives of those who encounter them in the course of the novel.

All the children of the Kuragins only know how to take everything from life that is possible, and Tolstoy did not consider any of them worthy to continue their race.