Platon Karataev characteristics and description. Plato Karataev. Echoes of the Christian religion in the behavior of Plato
In the image of Platon Karataev, Tolstoy depicted a peaceful, kind, spiritual principle, maximally strengthened, strengthened in him the features of a simple Russian person, made him the personification of everything good, Russian, round. This is manifested in everything: in the external appearance - the roundness of his head, back, arms, movements; in the smile, affectionate and loving disposition with which he treats every living creature - the soldiers, Pierre, the French (they are also part of the world for him, which he loves), his purple little dog. This is manifested in the roundness, in the movements, gestures, the special harmony of his occupations, the most diverse affairs in which he is constantly engaged and in which he shows the same skill.
Tolstoy writes that, having been taken prisoner, Platon Karataev threw away everything that was put on him, alien, soldierly, and involuntarily returned to the former, peasant or “Christian,” as he said, people's warehouse.
In his free time (in the evening) he liked to talk, tell or sing something, he liked to listen to fairy tales, but most of all he liked to listen to stories about real life. Platon Karataev loved to speak and spoke well, decorating his speech with endearing words, proverbs and sayings - those folk sayings that seem so insignificant, taken separately, and which suddenly acquire the meaning of deep wisdom when they are said by the way.
In Platon Karataev, we see the harmony of inner life, which is given by boundless faith in God's will for everything that happens on Earth, the belief that good and justice will win in the end anyway, hence his non-resistance to evil by violence and acceptance of everything, no matter what happens .
It is also important that “his life, as he himself looked at it, had no meaning as a separate life. It only made sense as a part of the whole, which he constantly felt.”
Platon Karataev embodies the world law that Tolstoy's favorite heroes strive to comprehend.
Before meeting with Karataev, Pierre experienced his most severe mental crisis. From the moment he saw the terrible scene of the execution of innocent people by soldiers who did not want to do this, “in his soul, as if suddenly, that spring was pulled out, on which everything was supported and seemed to be alive ... In him, although he did not give himself report, faith was destroyed in the improvement of the world, and in the human soul, and in God ... ”
Platon Karataev helped Pierre restore a sense of the stability of the world order, which is based on love and mutual understanding, helped get rid of the terrible question that tormented him: “why?” Pierre felt the joy of liberation from the search for the purpose and meaning of life, because they only prevented him from feeling that the meaning of life is in life itself, in the realization that everywhere, in everything, next to people there is a God who loves everyone and without whose will not a hair falls off a person's head. It was in captivity, thanks to Karataev, trials and hardships, that Pierre regained faith in God, learned to appreciate life itself, abandoned, as Tolstoy writes, the “mental telescope”, into which he looked through the heads of people, and joyfully contemplated the ever-changing world around him. , eternally great, incomprehensible and infinite life.
Of course, the path of Pierre's search does not end there, it continues further, as can be seen from the epilogue. But these searches will now be based on the solid foundation of the common life into which Pierre has entered, on the need for love for everything that surrounds him. This knowledge was acquired by Pierre in communication with Platon Karataev, who was for him the highest embodiment of simplicity, goodness and truth.
The image of Platon Karataev in the novel "War and Peace" (version 2)
One of the themes of L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is the theme of the people. Platon Karataev is a prominent representative of the people here. In general, this image is indicative of the creative evolution of L.N. Tolstoy in the late 60s of the 19th century. The writer comes to the conclusion that true happiness lies in detachment from worldly fuss, in love for one's neighbor, in the recognition of the people's truth. This idea found its embodiment in Platon Karataev.
Karataev accepts everything in life as it is, believing that everything is given from God. Joy has come - rejoice, suffering - try to soften it with your love. To eliminate evil by force means to generate new evil. Regulated by such instincts (and he has them from a morally healthy “swarm” peasant life), Plato does not grieve about anything. “Put it down, Lord, with a pebble, raise it with a ball,” he says.
Karataev also transferred the habits of a working peasant into military life: he is always busy with something, helps others, for him everyone is people, he pities everyone equally. This hero has no enemies, no malice either. Difficulties do not frighten him, and no case takes him by surprise: "everything is in the hands of God." In his speeches and actions there was something soothing, "round" and "arguable."
In a word, this is a person who has no contradictions either with himself or with the environment. He completely relied on the power of God, fate, and is sure that only that which cannot be avoided will happen to him. So, there is no point in torturing yourself, trying to change what cannot be changed. Such psychology can be called fatalistic. It leads to obedience to fate, non-resistance.
L.N. Tolstoy did not distort anything, creating the character of Karataev. The features of Karataev's "passivity" were inherent in a certain part of the Russian peasantry. In this hero, Tolstoy poeticizes the wholeness of the peasant's worldview, the vitality of his character. Not without reason, in the life of this simple man, Pierre Bezukhov found something to be satisfied with, freeing himself from thoughts of happiness.
Plato is also a soldier, although a prisoner, but, at first glance, it is not a soldier’s, but a purely peasant’s beginning of life that is put forward in him. The writer needs this in order to open the inner world of the peasant before Pierre. To please the author, Platon Karataev, “having been captured and overgrown with a beard ... threw away everything that was put on him, alien, soldierly, and involuntarily returned to the former peasant, folk warehouse.”
For the first time in his life, Pierre was so close to a peasant, lived with him in the same way of life and shared a common fate. Here he discovered a man with his versatile interests. According to Pierre's repeated assurances, Platon Karataev had a great influence on him, but at the same time, he never finishes telling what exactly this influence was. So, Bezukhov decided to answer this question when he told Natasha about what he had experienced when returning from captivity: “Pierre began to talk about Karataev (he already got up from the table and walked, Natasha followed him with her eyes) and stopped. No, you cannot understand what I have learned from this illiterate man - fool.
And nothing followed. Obviously, the answer should be sought in those properties of the peasant, which both the hero of the novel and Tolstoy himself begin to admire. And they like everything in Karataev: kindness, diligence, hard work, health, spontaneity, and obedience to fate. In Karataev, Tolstoy poeticizes the wholeness of the peasant's worldview, the vitality of character. In him, Pierre was attracted by calmness, the presence of great inner strength. This force is called the spirit of the people, and it was she who revealed herself to Pierre, helping him to reach the desired path. Thanks to her, Bezukhov gains faith in goodness, a desire to help his neighbor.
The significance of Karataev for Pierre is most of all determined by the fact that now a model of life has been found, devoid of the vices of the ruling classes. Salvation in the peasant - this, as we will see later, is very tangibly expressed in the novel by compositional means. Platon Karataev appears at the moment when Pierre needed some kind of support in order to regain faith in goodness and truth, which he had lost after the upheavals he experienced during the execution by the French of Russians accused of setting Moscow on fire.
It was thanks to Karataev, as the novel says, that "the previously destroyed world now with new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations, moved in his soul." Karataev forever remained in Pierre's mind the most precious memory, "the personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth."
Platon Karataev is not so much an ideal as a functional image. This is also confirmed by the fact that, having returned from captivity, Pierre did not become a non-resistance. In the epilogue, he approaches members of a secret society, condemns the political order in the country: “There is theft in the courts, in the army there is only one stick: shagistika, settlements, they torment the people, they stifle enlightenment. What is young, honestly, is ruining! Everyone sees that it can't go like this. Everything is too tight and will surely burst.
The image of Platon Karataev in the novel is the embodiment of folk thought. The people are depicted in the epic as the bearer of many valuable human qualities.
Thus, under the influence of the people, Prince Andrei and Pierre are spiritually transformed, they find the highest goal of life, linking it with serving people, protecting goodness and justice.
The image of Platon Karataev in the novel "War and Peace" (version 3)
The depiction of a person's spiritual growth, the "dialectic of the soul" is, perhaps, the most characteristic in Tolstoy's work. But with this truly human quality - the wealth of the spiritual world - he endows only people he likes (an example is the image of Platon Karataev). This peculiar tradition can be traced throughout the entire creative path of the writer. Tolstoy writes in such a way that it is clearly visible: the more secular society influences a person, the poorer his inner world. A person can achieve inner harmony in communication with the people, with nature. Tolstoy is convinced that class barriers have a depressing effect on the development of character. Adhering to this point of view, the writer reveals the image of Platon Karataev in the novel.
With Platon Karataev, a soldier of the Apsheron regiment, Pierre Bezukhov meets at the most difficult moment of his life. Having just escaped execution, he watched other people being killed, and the world “turned for Pierre into a heap of senseless rubbish”, “faith in him was destroyed both in the improvement of the world, and in the human, and in his soul, and in God.”
Helps the hero get out of this crisis Platon Karataev. Moreover, after meeting him, after a long conversation in captivity, Pierre forever gains a new understanding of things, confidence, inner freedom. The hero joins the folk principle, the folk wisdom embodied in Karataev. No wonder the writer called this philosopher Plato. And in the epilogue of the novel, after many years, Pierre Bezukhov will check his thoughts, actions, correlating them with Karataev's ideas about life.
At the first meeting with this small, affectionate and good-natured man, Pierre is struck by the feeling of something round and calm that comes from Karataev. He attracts everyone with his calmness, confidence, kindness and smile of his round face. This is a soldier who participated in many campaigns, but in captivity "he threw away everything alien, soldierly from himself" and returned to the peasant, people's warehouse.
The author emphasizes the “round” beginning in the appearance of the hero: “he even carried his hands, as if he was always going to hug something.” The charming appearance is completed by large brown gentle eyes and a pleasant smile. In the very first words addressed to Pierre, “affection and simplicity” sound: “Have you seen a lot of need, master? BUT?. Eh, falcon, do not grieve ... "
Plato's speech is melodious, riddled with folk proverbs and sayings. He speaks, as it were, not only from himself, but expressing the wisdom of the people: “To endure an hour, but to live a century”, “Where there is a court, there is a lie”, “Never refuse from a bag and prison”, “Crying for an illness is the god of death will not give”, etc.
He expresses his most cherished thoughts in the story of a merchant who suffered innocently, was slandered and sentenced to penal servitude for someone else's crime. After many years, he meets the true killer, and remorse awakens in that. The deep Christian idea of life according to conscience, humility and faith in the highest justice, which will certainly triumph, is the essence of Karataev's, and therefore, folk philosophy. That is why Pierre, having joined this worldview, begins to live in a new way.
The main idea of the novel "War and Peace" is the idea of the unity of people of good will. And Platon Karataev is shown as a person who is able to dissolve in a common cause, in the world. For Tolstoy, this is the soul of the patriarchal world, he represents the psychology and thoughts of all ordinary people. They do not think about the meaning of life, like Pierre and Andrei. These people just live, they are not afraid of the thought of death, because they know that their “existence is controlled not by simple arbitrariness”, but by a fair higher power: “His life, as he himself looked at it, did not make sense as a separate life” . It only made sense as part of a whole that he constantly felt.” This is the feeling to which the nobles of Tolstoy go with such difficulty.
The essence of Karataev's nature is love. Not a personal feeling and attachment to a particular person, but love in general for everything in this world: he loved his comrades, the French, he loved Pierre. Plato forever remained for Pierre an incomprehensible, round and eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth.
Tolstoy in his novel showed different types of people: "Each person carries his own goals in himself, and meanwhile wears them in order to serve common goals inaccessible to man." And only by feeling himself involved in the common life, a person can fulfill his personal tasks, live a true life, in harmony with himself and with the world. This is what was revealed to Pierre in communication with Platon Karataev.
Article menu:
It rarely happens that the life and personality of serfs or individual representatives of the peasantry become the cause of changes in the personality or worldview of people of high society, aristocrats. Such a tendency is exceptional in real life and no less rare in literature or other branches of art.
Basically, the opposite happens: influential gentlemen bring dramatic changes to the lives of ordinary people. In the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" there are many such situations that in everyday life happen in the ranks of years. There are many characters in the novel, some of them occupy a dominant position, others are secondary.
A distinctive feature of the epic novel is that all the characters in the novel are closely related. The actions of acting heroes partially or globally affect the life situations of other characters. One of the main in terms of such an influence on the worldview of other characters is the image of Platon Karataev.
Biography and appearance of Platon Karataev
Platon Karataev is a short-lived character in the novel. He appears in the novel only in a few chapters, but his influence on the further fate of one of the representatives of the aristocracy, Pierre Bezukhov, becomes exceptionally great.
The reader gets acquainted with this character at the age of 50 Karataev. This age limit is quite vague - Karataev himself does not know exactly how many winters he lived. Karataev's parents are simple peasants, they were not literate, so the data on the exact date of birth of their son has not been preserved.
The biography of Plato does not stand out in any way in the context of an ordinary representative of the peasantry. He is an illiterate person, his wisdom is based solely on the life experience of his personal and other representatives of the peasantry. However, despite this, in his mental development he is somewhat higher than the highly educated aristocrat Pierre.
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the novel by Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace".
This is due to the fact that Bezukhov is deprived of the pragmatism of his life positions, he has never been able to solve complex, controversial issues and life problems. It is full of idealistic concepts and perception of reality within the framework of unreality. His world is a utopia.
Platon Karataev is a good-natured, sincere person. All of his physical features lead to the perception of him as a warm and pleasant and positive image of the novel. He has a positive, optimistic attitude and resembles the sun: he has an absolutely round head, gentle brown eyes, a sweet, pleasant smile. He himself is not very tall. Plato often smiles - at the same time his good white teeth become visible. His hair was still untouched by gray, either on his head or on his beard. His body was distinguished by smoothness of movement and flexibility - which was surprising for a man of his age and origin.
We know very little about the hero's childhood and youth. Tolstoy is not interested in the process of his formation as an integral personality, but in the end result of this process.
In clothes, Karataev adheres to the principle of convenience and practicality - his clothes should not have hindered movements.
During the captivity of Karataev, he walks in a dirty, torn shirt, black, soiled trousers. With every movement, an unpleasant, pungent smell of sweat is heard from him.
Karataev's life before military service
The life of Platon Karataev before the service was more joyful and successful, although not without its tragedies and sorrows.
Plato married and had a daughter. However, fate was not favorable to the girl - she died before her father entered the service.
What happened to Plato's wife and whether he had other children - Tolstoy does not tell us. What we know about civil life is that Karataev did not live in poverty. He was not a wealthy peasant, but he did not live in poverty either. His service in the army was predetermined by chance - Plato was caught cutting down someone else's forest and given to the soldiers. In the army, Plato did not lose his positive attitude, but such an occupation is alien to him, he sincerely regrets that he is not at home. He misses his former life, he misses his home.
The character of Platon Karataev
Platon Karataev does not have an explosive, contradictory character. He knows well all the hardships of peasant life, understands and realizes the injustices and difficulties of life, but perceives this as inevitable.
Karataev is a sociable person, he loves to talk and knows how to find a common language with virtually any person. He knows many interesting stories, knows how to interest his interlocutor. His speech is poetic, it is devoid of the rudeness common among soldiers.
Plato knows many proverbs and sayings and often uses them in his speech. Soldiers often use proverbs, but mostly they bear the imprint of military life - with a certain amount of rudeness and obscenity. Karataev's proverbs are not like soldier's statements - they exclude rudeness and vulgarity. Karataev has a pleasant voice, he speaks in the manner of Russian peasant women - melodiously and drawlingly.
Plato can sing well and loves to do it very much. He doesn't do it like the usual songwriters - his singing is not like the trill of birds - it is gentle and melodic. Karataev does not sing thoughtlessly, automatically, he passes the song through himself, it seems that he is living the song.
Karataev has golden hands. He knows how to do any work, it does not always work out well for him, but still the objects made by him are of tolerable, good quality. Plato knows how to perform both truly masculine - hard, physical work, as well as women's - he cooks food well, knows how to sew.
He is a caring, selfless person. During captivity, Karataev sews a shirt for Bezukhov, makes shoes for him. He does this not out of a selfish goal - to curry favor with a rich aristocrat, so that, in the event of a successful release from captivity, to receive any reward from him, but out of the kindness of his heart. He is sorry for the captivity, Pierre's military service, unadapted to the complexities.
Karataev is a kind, not greedy person. He feeds Pierre Bezukhov, often brings him baked potatoes.
Karataev believes he should stick to his word. He promised - fulfill - he always corresponded to this simple truth.
In the best traditions of the peasantry, Karataev is endowed with diligence. He cannot sit still doing nothing, even in captivity he is constantly busy with something - he makes things, helps others - for him this is a natural state.
We are used to the fact that ordinary men are far from neatness, but this only partially applies to Plato. He may look rather untidy himself, but in relation to the products of his labor he is always very careful. Such a diametrically opposite combination is surprising.
Most people, regardless of their social and financial status, tend to become attached to other people. At the same time, it does not matter what feelings they have in relation to certain heroes - friendship, sympathy or love. Karataev is friendly, he easily converges with new people, but he does not feel much affection. He easily breaks up with people. At the same time, Plato is never the initiator of the termination of communication. In most cases, such events occur in the context of certain events over which neither he nor his interlocutor have influence.
Those around him have a completely positive opinion - he is non-conflict, positively disposed, knows how to support a person in difficult times, infect him with his cheerfulness. It is practically impossible to summarize this fact and determine whether Karataev had such an attitude before the service.
On the one hand, we can assume that he had a different attitude before - he sincerely regrets that he is far from his home and a civilized, "peasant" life.
And it is likely that such an attitude was formed by Karataev as a result of military service - according to Plato, he has repeatedly taken part in military events and is not the first time he takes part in battles, so he could already experience all the bitterness of the loss of his comrades and in connection with this, such a protective mechanism arose - you should not become attached to those people who may not die today or tomorrow. Another factor that taught Karataev not to dwell on failures and partings could be the death of his daughter.
In the life of Plato, this event became tragic, perhaps a rethinking of the value of life and feelings of affection occurred with Karataev at that time. On the other hand, the presence of insufficient information on the subject of the life of Platon Karataev before military service and in 1812 in particular does not give the right to draw an unambiguous conclusion on this matter.
Platon Karataev and Pierre Bezukhov
It is unlikely that the image of Karataev had an influence exclusively on Pierre Bezukhov, but we do not know about other interactions of Plato with a similar result.
After disappointments in family life, Freemasonry and secular society in general. Bezukhov goes to the front. Here he also feels superfluous - he is too pampered and not adapted for this type of activity. Military events with the French become the cause of another disappointment - Bezukhov is hopelessly disappointed in his idol - Napoleon.
After he was captured and saw the executions, Pierre finally broke down. He learns too many things that are unpleasant for him and therefore the prerequisites for disappointment in people in general are born in him, but this does not happen, since it was at this moment that Bezukhov met Karataev.
Simplicity and calmness is the first thing that surprises Pierre in a new acquaintance. Karataev showed Bezukhov that a person's happiness lies in himself. Over time, Bezukhov also becomes infected with Plato's calmness - he does not start chaotically, as he did before, but balancedly put everything on the shelves in his head.
Death of Platon Karataev
The conditions in which the captured Russian soldiers were kept were far from ideal. This fact leads to a new relapse of Karataev's illness - he spent a long time in the hospital with a cold, and in captivity he falls ill again. The French are not interested in keeping prisoners, especially if they are ordinary soldiers. When the disease took possession of Karataev in full, and it became clear that the fever would not go away on its own, Plato was killed. This is done to prevent the spread of the disease.
From the point of view of literary criticism, the death of Platon Karataev was fully justified. He fulfilled his destiny and therefore leaves the pages of the novel and his literary life.
Thus, Platon Karataev is an important element of L.N. Tolstoy. His meeting with Pierre Bezukhov becomes fateful for the latter. The optimism, wisdom and cheerfulness of a simple peasant accomplish what neither bookish knowledge nor high-society society could accomplish. Bezukhov is aware of the life principles that allow him to remain himself, but at the same time not to degrade and not renounce his life positions. Karataev taught the count to find happiness in himself, Pierre is convinced that the main purpose of a person is to be happy.
The personification of the entire Russian people, the quintessence of its best qualities, was the image of Platon Karataev in the novel. Despite the fact that he appears for a very short time, this character carries a huge semantic load and is one of the main ones in the work.
Platon Karataev is a Russian soldier whom Pierre Bezukhov met when he was captured by the French. For Bezukhov, who lived side by side with him for about a month in inhuman conditions, Plato forever remained a vivid, unforgettable memory, the embodiment of the philosophical depth and wisdom of the Russian people.
Platon Karataev was a peasant in the past and was married. He got into the army by an unfair court decision for cutting down a manor's forest. But, despite all the injustice of life and the hardships of military service, Plato did not become embittered. He loves all people, including the French, every living being, the whole world, feeling himself an integral part of it. And this love helps him to accept all the blows of fate humbly and with wisdom, which is reflected in the folk sayings and jokes he constantly uses. In a word, voice, sympathy, Karataev knew how to console everyone who needed comfort.
Pierre Bezukhov met Platon Karataev at a moment of deep spiritual crisis. Seeing how the French shot the prisoners, Pierre lost faith in humanity, in the meaningfulness of his deeds. The words spoken by Plato at the moment of their first communication contained folk wisdom about the finiteness of suffering and that life is longer than them. With what instinct did this illiterate peasant guess the only true tone that was so necessary for the desperate Pierre? Perhaps his words and deeds were the result of inner harmony based on faith in the justice and expediency of everything that happens in the world, for everything is God's will? The simple peasant philosophy of patience, obedience to fate, willingness to suffer for people and faith in the triumph of justice made an internal revolution in Pierre's mind.
The peasant and the gentleman, being in captivity on an equal footing, were subordinated to one goal - to survive, to survive, while remaining people. Bezukhov learned this from Platon Karataev. In the person of Karataev, the entire Russian people became a support for Pierre, a source of strength and subsequent internal rebirth. Plato's death was that deep inner shock that forever changed his worldview. This is the huge semantic load of the image of Platon Karataev in the novel "War and Peace".
Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is a vast historical canvas in which the fates of numerous heroes develop against the backdrop of an epic panorama of the war with the Napoleonic invasion. And, despite the fact that most of the characters in the novel belong to the nobility, the main character of the work is still the people. Patriotism and courage, unity in the face of the enemy, the great strength of national unity - that was the key to Russia's victory over Napoleon.
Option 2
The external and internal appearance of Platon Karataev in the novel "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy is especially bright and attractive. Plato is an interesting and significant character, a man of "his era", in him the car reveals the whole essence of the human inner world and the meaning of his life on earth. Although his role in the novel is not so great, it was this man who left an important imprint in the life of Pierre Bezukhov.
Platon Karataev was a simple peasant of fifty years old, his parents were poor, and therefore he was not educated to read and write. Despite the low social status and lack of upbringing and high education, Plato's reasoning is wise and instructive, unlike the aristocratic Pierre. His knowledge is mainly based on the experience of his own life and the life of the peasants around him.
The inner world of Karataev is good-natured and sincere, disposes and attracts people around him. It exudes warmth and positive emotions. Plato's appearance is as radiant as his character. He is short, round-faced, with kind brown eyes and a pleasant smile. The man constantly endows those around him with his sweet smile, exposing even white teeth. Despite his advanced age, the movements of the man are smooth, calm, not betraying his real origin, his hair is still untouched by gray hair. Plato prefers clothes of a free, non-restrictive cut.
Before Plato got into the service, he was married, he had a daughter, but she died early. The man, despite his humble origin, was not a poor peasant. At one fine moment, Plato was caught in a crime - he cut down someone else's forest, then he was sent to serve in the army. He misses his home, but still continues to smile and cheer up others.
Platon Karataev is a kind and honest person, he perfectly understands all the hardships and difficulties of life, considers most of the current situations inevitable. The open nature of Plato helps to find a common language with any interlocutor. He knows a large number of sayings, interesting stories and proverbs. They differ significantly from the rude soldier's statements.
Plato loves to sing and does it as if the song passes through his soul, the man's voice is like the trills of birds. In the army, he gets acquainted with the aristocrat Pierre Bezukhov and, out of the kindness of his soul, helps him in every possible way. Either he will put a patch on his shirt, or he will treat him with baked potatoes. Plato always adheres to his principle - if he promised, help.
Despite the fact that it is easy for him to communicate with any person, Plato rarely becomes attached to him for real. For those around him, he is an open, non-conflict person, he will always lend a helping hand if it is difficult for someone.
Once captured, Karataev’s previously acquired cold worsens again, the disease does not recede, the man has a constant fever that does not go away, the French do not need such a prisoner and they decide to kill him.
Platon Karataev, despite a short conversation with Pierre Bezukhov, taught the young man to look at many things differently, look for happiness within himself, solve difficult life problems without losing his fortitude, and always be positive and open.
Composition on the theme Platon Karataev
In the novel "War and Peace" the writer described many images. Despite the secondary role, the image of Platon Karataev is important. Karataev played an important role in the life of Pierre Bezukhov. With his help, Bezukhov realized the meaning of life.
The author described Platon Karataev as a good-natured and peaceful, at the same time, a simple person. His simplicity is expressed in his appearance, in his movements, gestures, manner of speaking. In any case, he put a lot of effort and did his job with special skill. Having been captured by the enemies, the hero threw away everything alien from himself, and decided to return to the former peasant way of life. In his free time, Plato liked to tell stories and fairy tales, and also sing. But most of all he liked to listen to stories taken from life. Telling different stories, Karataev adorned his words with clever and endearing proverbs.
In Karataev, readers can see the inner harmony of the soul, which is manifested by faith in God. The hero believed that sooner or later good and justice would prevail. Therefore, he did not resist the current situation, but took it for granted. For him, life had no meaning. He perceived his life as a particle of something whole.
Before meeting Plato, Pierre was under severe stress. Karataev helped Bezukhov regain a sense of resilience to ongoing events. Mutual understanding and love lay on the basis of such a feeling. With the help of such a mentor, Bezukhov felt joy and completely freed himself from the search for his goal and the meaning of life. He realized that the meaning of life is life itself. The hero began to believe in God, who protects every person. Thanks to the instructions of Karataev, Pierre believed in God and began to appreciate life.
The image of Platon Karataev has a more detailed character and occupies a special place in the novel. The author introduced Karataev into his creation, because he wanted to show the spiritual re-education of Pierre. Thus, Tolstoy created an idealized hero with kindness, meekness, love and self-denial. Such qualities have a positive effect on Bezukhov. For other prisoners, Plato was a simple soldier who carried out every assignment.
The work "Money for Mary" became one of the first significant in the work of Rasputin. It was this story that gave a strong impetus to the further work of the writer. Published in 1967 in the magazine "Angare"
Speaking about the work of such a wonderful writer as A.I. Kuprin, it should be noted that he tells in his works about sincere and true love
The very publication of the novel in the Sovremennik magazine did not arouse interest from critics. Not a single magazine or newspaper published in St. Petersburg and Moscow commented on Pushkin's new work.
The novel "War and Peace" is undoubtedly one of the most polyphonic, multicolored works. Freely combining, “matching” in itself the image of the events of world history and subtle, hidden, contradictory spiritual movements, “War and Peace” polemically opposes any classification and schematization. The living dialectics of the ever-moving, multi-complex, unstoppable life, superbly captured by Tolstoy and constituting the soul of his novel, requires the researcher to be especially careful and tactful.
The issue of Karataev is both a simple and complex issue. Simple in essence, in the clarity of the image, in the clarity of the author's idea, and finally, in the insignificance of his place in the novel. Difficult - due to the incredible ideological piling up that accompanied the analysis of this image throughout the ninety-year criticism of War and Peace. The image of Karataev was exaggerated by criticism in connection with some currents of populism, pochvenism, etc., which were emerging during the years of the appearance of War and Peace. The image of Karataev was exaggerated by criticism in connection with Tolstoyism and the controversy that accompanied it in the last years of Tolstoy's life. And when literary scholars of recent times, up to the present day, consider this image, they actually have in mind not so much the text of the novel itself, but the ideological accents that, each in their own way, made on it Shelgunov, Strakhov or Savodnik.
The image of Karataev personifies in War and Peace the inseparability of the private existence of each and life.
Tolstoy creates the image of Platon Karataev, characterizing his inner appearance with special features of the peasant patriarchal consciousness.
In the images of Tikhon Shcherbaty and Platon Karataev, the author shows two sides of the peasant consciousness and behavior - efficiency and passivity, struggle and non-resistance. These images, as it were, complement each other, allowing Tolstoy to comprehensively depict the peasant world. In the novel, “poor and plentiful, downtrodden and all-powerful” peasant Russia appears before us. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to the author's assessment of the image of Karataev, to point out that Tolstoy clearly admires his hero, his meekness and resignation. This was reflected in the weaknesses of the writer's worldview. But one cannot but agree with Saburov's statement that "Tolstoy's personal views and moods never distorted the artistic image in War and Peace."
In the image of Platon Karataev, the author expresses the features of an active, lively peasant character. Depicting how he took off his shoes, “neatly, round, disputing, movements that followed one after another without slowing down”, how he settled himself in his corner, how he lived at first in captivity, when he had only to “shake himself, so that immediately, without a second delay, take up some business, ”the author draws a person accustomed to work and a tireless person who knew how to be needed and useful to everyone. “He knew how to do everything, not very well, but not badly either. He baked, cooked, sewed, planed, made boots. He was always busy and only at night allowed himself to talk, which he loved, and songs. Karataev was, judging by his stories, “an old soldier”, who did not like, but honestly performed the soldier’s service, during which “he was never beaten.” There is also a patriotic feeling in Karataev, which he expresses in his own way: “How not to be bored, falcon! Moscow, she is the mother of cities. How not to get bored looking at it. Yes, the worm is worse than cabbage, but before that you yourself disappear, ”he says, consoling Pierre. “Having been taken prisoner and overgrown with a beard, he apparently threw off everything alien, soldierly that was put on him, and involuntarily returned to the former peasant, people’s warehouse,” and liked to tell mainly “from his old and apparently dear to him “Christian” memoirs, how he pronounce, peasant life.
The appearance of Karataev is a special expression of the peasant essence in the author's interpretation of it. His appearance gives the impression of a handsome, robust peasant: “a pleasant smile and large brown, tender eyes were round ... his teeth are bright white and strong, which all showed their two semicircles when he laughed (which he often did), were all good and not a single gray hair was intact in his beard and hair, and the whole body had the appearance of flexibility and especially hardness and endurance.
Drawing a portrait of Karataev, “the whole figure of Plato in his French overcoat belted with a rope, in a cap and bast shoes, was round, his head was completely round, his back, chest, shoulders, even his arms, which he wore as if always intending to hug something, were round; a pleasant smile and big brown gentle eyes were round, the wrinkles were small, round. Pierre felt something round even in the speech of this man ”This“ round ”becomes a symbol of“ Karataevshchina ”, a symbol of the inner harmony of all aspects of the personality, inviolable reconciliation with oneself and with everything around, the author emphasizes in all his appearance “the personification of everything Russian, kind and round” - as some symbol of a harmoniously whole person. In the integrity, immediacy of his nature, from the point of view of the author, the unconscious, “swarm” life of the people is manifested, like the life of nature: he loved songs and “sang not like the songwriters sing, knowing that they are listening, but he sang the way they sing birds". “Each word of his and each action was a manifestation of an activity unknown to him, which was his life. But his life, as he himself looked at it, had no meaning as a separate particle. It only made sense as a part of the whole, which he constantly felt. His words and actions poured out of him as evenly, as necessary and immediately, as a scent separates from a flower.”
The author's attention is especially drawn to the inner, mental state of Platon Karataev, as if independent of the external conditions of life; “He loved and lived lovingly with everything that life brought him, and especially with a person - not with some famous person, but with those people who were before his eyes” ...
The author attached special meaning and significance to this unchanging loving attitude of Karataev towards people as a well-known ethical norm. The image of Platon Karataev, the most developed of the folk images, occupies a special place in the artistic structure of the novel. It did not appear immediately and appears in later editions of War and Peace.
The introduction of Platon Karataev into the action of the epic is due to the fact that it was important for Tolstoy to show the spiritual revival of Pierre under the influence of the moral spiritual qualities of a man from the people.
Assigning a special moral task to Karataev - bringing clarity and peace of mind to the world of human suffering, Tolstoy creates an idealized image of Karataev, building him as the personification of kindness, love, meekness and self-denial. These spiritual qualities of Karataev are fully perceived by Pierre Bezukhov, illuminating his spiritual world with a new truth, revealed to him in forgiveness, love and humanity.
For all the other prisoners, Karataev “was the most ordinary soldier”, over whom they slightly “good-naturedly mocked, sent him for parcels” and called Sokolik or Platosha; he was a simpleton to them.
It is very characteristic of the development of Tolstoy's creative path that already at the end of the 60s he embodied his human ideal in the image of a patriarchal peasant. But Karataev, with his features of meekness, humility, humility and unaccountable love for all people, is not a typical, generalizing image of a Russian peasant. His role is important in studying the author's worldview: in the image of Karataev, for the first time, an artistic expression of the elements of Tolstoy's future teaching about non-resistance to evil by violence is given.
But, having elevated the moral character of Karataev in ethical terms, Tolstoy showed in “War and Peace” that the vital force of the Russian people did not lie in the Karataevs, but in the efficiency that characterized Tikhonov Shcherbatykh, partisan soldiers who destroyed and drove the enemy from their native land . The image of Platon Karataev is one of the clearest examples of the penetration of the author's religious and ethical views into the artistic system and represents a one-sided image of the character of the Russian patriarchal peasant - his passivity, long-suffering, religiosity, humility. In one of his early stories (“Cutting the Forest”), Tolstoy wrote about three types of soldiers: submissive, commanding, and desperate. Even then, he saw how he was the most "sympathetic and mostly connected with the best - Christian virtues: meekness, piety, patience ... the submissive type in general." Platons Karataevs were, of course, among the soldiers during the Patriotic War of 1812, and among the unknown heroes of the Sevastopol defense, and among the peasants.
Many traits of Karataev's character - love for people, for life, sincere gentleness, responsiveness to human suffering, the desire to help a person in despair, grief - are valuable properties in human relationships. But Tolstoy's elevation of Platon Karataev to the human ideal, his emphasis on passivity, resignation to fate, forgiveness and unaccountable love for everything as an expression of the ethical formula of Tolstoyism (the world is within you) was deeply reactionary.
It is no coincidence that in the Epilogue, when Natasha, remembering Platon Karataev as the person whom Pierre respected most of all, asks him if he would now approve of his activities, Pierre answered, thinking:
“No, he wouldn’t approve… What he would approve of is our family life. He so desired to see beauty, happiness, tranquility in everything, and I would proudly show him us.
The essence of Karataev denies the desire in a person for an active political struggle for their rights and independence, and, consequently, Tolstoy argues that active revolutionary methods of struggle for the reorganization of society are alien to the people's worldview. Karataev is not led by calculation, not by reason. But there is nothing of his own in his spontaneous impulses. Even in his appearance, everything individual is removed, and he speaks with proverbs and sayings that capture only general experience and general wisdom. Bearing a certain name, having his own biography, Karataev, however, is completely free from his own desires, there are no personal attachments for him, or at least the instinct to protect and save his life. And Pierre is not tormented by his death, despite the fact that this is done by force and almost before Pierre's eyes.
Karataev is not the central image of the Russian peasant in War and Peace, but one of many episodic figures along with Danila and Balaga, Karp and Dron, Tikhon and Mavra Kuzminichnaya, Ferapontov and Shcherbaty, and so on. and so on, no brighter, no more favored by the author than many of them. The central image of the Russian people in "War and Peace" is a collective image, embodied in many characters, revealing the majestic and deep character of a simple Russian man - a peasant and a soldier.
Tolstoy, according to his own plan, depicts Karataev not as a characteristic representative of the soldier mass, but as a peculiar phenomenon. The writer himself emphasized that Karataev's speech, which gives him a special appearance, was sharply different in style and content from the usual soldier's speech (see vol. IV, part I, ch. XIII). Tolstoy did not even think of passing him off as a common type of Russian soldier. He is not exactly like the others. He is shown as a peculiar, original figure, as one of the many psychological types of the Russian people. If we do not consider it a distortion of the image of the peasant masses, the appearance in Turgenev, along with Khorem, Yermolai, Biryuk, Burmistr and others, of Kasyan and Beautiful. Swords and Lukeri-Living relics, why should Karataev, among many other folk characters, cause special criticism of Tolstoy? The fact that Tolstoy subsequently elevated non-resistance to evil by violence into a dogma and gave it the significance of a political principle during the years of revolutionary upsurge cannot affect the assessment of Karataev’s image in the context of War and Peace, where everything is based on the idea of non-resistance to evil.
Karataev is endowed with the name of the ancient philosopher Plato - so Tolstoy directly indicates that this is the highest “type” of a person’s stay among people, participation in the movement of time in history.
The image of Karataev in general, perhaps, most directly "matches" in the book "pictures of life" with Tolstoy's reasoning of the widest scope. Here openly converge, mutually “highlighting” each other, the art and philosophy of history. Philosophical thought here directly intrudes into the image, “organizes” it, while the image gives life to itself, concretizes, grounds its constructions, seeks for it a proper human justification and confirmation.
Tolstoy himself, speaking in one of the editions of the epilogue of "War and Peace" about "the majority of ... readers", "who, having reached the historical and, all the more so, philosophical reasoning, will say:" Well, again. That’s boredom, ”they will look at where the reasoning ends, and, turning the pages, they will continue further,” he concluded: “This kind of reader is my dearest reader ... the success of the book depends on their judgments, and their judgments are categorical ... These are fiction readers those whose judgment is dearer to me than all. Between the lines, without reasoning, they will read everything that I wrote in the reasoning and what I would not write if all readers were like that. And immediately, seemingly quite unexpectedly, he continued: "... If there were no ... reasoning, there would be no descriptions."
Thus the creator of War and Peace explained that the introduction of a true view of history was his invariable goal, the achievement of which he constantly and in every possible way cared for, but the very essence of this view presupposed, first of all, the development of “descriptions”. After all, history was created for Tolstoy, giving it meaning and meaning, the whole life of all people. But the artist did not even seem to believe that the “descriptions” alone, without supports, could well withstand the most extraordinary load.
Essay on literature on the topic: Platon Karataev in the novel “War and Peace”
Other writings:
- The novel "War and Peace" was conceived as a novel about a Decembrist returning from an amnesty in 1856. But the more Tolstoy worked with archival materials, the more he understood that, without telling about the uprising itself and more deeply - about the war of 1812 Read More ......
- Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is among the best works of world literature. It tells about significant events in the history of the country, highlights important periods of people's life, ideals, way of life and customs of various strata of society. One of the main themes of the work is Read More ......
- The image of Platon Karataev is one of the key images of Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace", reflecting the writer's reflections on the foundations of the spiritual life of the Russian people. This hero is shown mainly through the perception of Pierre Bezukhov, for whom he became “the most powerful and dearest memory.” He Read More ......
- Platon Karataev Characteristics of a literary hero This is a soldier of the Apsheron regiment, whom Pierre met in captivity. K. is the embodiment of “everything Russian, good and round”, patriarchal, humility, non-resistance, religiosity. All these qualities Tolstoy appreciated in the Russian peasantry. K. - kind, soft, affectionate, good-natured Read More ......
- LN Tolstoy's favorite thought in the novel "War and Peace" was "people's thought". At first glance, the reflection of this theme in the novel seems episodic, since out of more than five hundred and seventy heroes of the novel, only ten images of representatives of the people are developed. But Tolstoy Read More ......
- Platon Karataev is the embodiment of everything Russian, kind and round, patriarchy, humility, non-resistance, religiosity - all those qualities that Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy so valued among the Russian peasantry. Lydia Dmitrievna Opulskaya wrote: “The image of Plato is more complex and contradictory, it means a lot Read More ......
- I want to show the spiritual beauty of the “simple person” using the example of Platon Karataev. After the execution of the “arsonists” at the walls of the Novodevichy Convent, in Pierre’s soul, “as if suddenly the spring was pulled out, on which everything was held and seemed to be alive, and everything fell into a heap Read More ......
- One of the themes of Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" is the theme of the people. Platon Karataev is a prominent representative of the people here. In general, this image is indicative of the creative evolution of Leo Tolstoy at the end of the 60s of the 19th century. The writer comes to the conclusion in Read More ......
PLATON KARATAEV.
The image of Karataev. Platon Karatev and Pierre Bezukhov.
Karataev Platon is a character in the epic novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace", a Russian soldier met by Pierre Bezukhov in a booth for prisoners, where he lived next to him for four weeks. Karataev, according to the writer, “ remained forever in Pierre's soul the strongest and dearest memory and personification of all Russian, kind ».
Karataev wore a French overcoat, belted with a rope, a cap and bast shoes on his feet. " The whole figure of Plato ... was round, the head ... back, chest, shoulders, even the arms that he wore, as if always about to hug something, were round; a pleasant smile and big brown gentle eyes were round ". Karataev " should have been fifty years old ", but " his teeth, bright white and strong ... were all good and intact; not a single gray hair was in his beard and hair, and his whole body had the appearance of flexibility and especially hardness and endurance ».
Karataev's face, " despite small round wrinkles, it had an expression of innocence and youth; his voice was pleasant and melodious ". He " never thought about what he said and what he would say ", and this gave the intonation of his speech "irresistible persuasiveness."
Karataev was physically so strong and hardy "in the early days of captivity" that, " he did not seem to understand what fatigue and sickness were ". He “knew how to do everything... He baked, cooked, sewed, planed, made boots. He was always busy and only at night allowed himself to talk ... and sang songs.
Karataev talks a lot about his former peasant life, using a lot of sayings and proverbs, "these were those folk sayings ... that get ... the meaning of deep wisdom when they are said by the way." Going to bed, he said: “Lay down, Lord, with a pebble, raise it up like a ball”, getting up in the morning: “Lie down - curled up, get up - shake yourself.” He "sang songs ... like birds sing", because he needed it, as it is necessary to stretch or disperse ... ". Karataev " he liked to talk and spoke well ... In his speech, the simplest events ... took on the character of solemn decorum ". Karataev also loved to listen to fairy tales and stories "about real life." Attachments, friendship, love, as Pierre understood them, "Karataev did not have," but he loved, - notes Tolstoy, - and lived lovingly with everything that life brought him, and especially with a man ... He loved his mongrel, loved his comrades, the French, loved Pierre ... but Pierre felt that Karataev ... would not have been upset for a minute separation from him... ". The rest of the prisoners considered Karataev "the most ordinary soldier", but for Pierre he forever remained " incomprehensible... and eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth ». « ... His life, as he himself looked at it, had no meaning as a separate life. She made sense only as a part of the whole, which he constantly felt ».
At the first meeting with Karataev, Pierre, shocked by the execution of the "arsonists", feeling that "in him ... faith was destroyed in the improvement of the world, and in the human, and in his soul, and in God," saw in him only "a little man , whose presence Pierre noticed at first by the strong smell of sweat. “... This man took off his shoes. And the way he did it interested Pierre. His movements were "neat, round, disputed, following one after another without slowing down." Pierre felt " something pleasant, soothing ... in these contentious movements, in this well-organized household in the corner, in the smell of even this person ..
.».
And in the future, Pierre is experiencing a favorable effect of the words and deeds of Karataev. His first words addressed to Pierre were words of sympathy, goodwill, consolation: “Have you seen a lot of need, master? BUT?" "... And such an expression of affection and simplicity was in the melodious voice of a man
, - writes Tolstoy, - that Pierre wanted to answer, but his jaw trembled, and he felt tears. “... Do not grieve, my friend: endure an hour, but live forever!” Karataev continued.
Karataev treated Pierre to a baked potato, asked questions and told about himself. It turned out that he was a soldier of the Apsheron regiment, "was dying of a fever" and captured "from a hospital in Moscow." In the service he was nicknamed Falcon because he often refers to the interlocutor with this word. Karataev is very worried about the events of the war: «... Moscow, she is the mother of cities. How not to get bored watching this ". But still Karataev believes in a favorable outcome of events and expresses this with a proverb: “The worm gnaws cabbage, but before that you disappear ...” He is sincerely upset that Pierre had no parents, no children. He does not accept Pierre’s pessimism (“yes, now it doesn’t matter”): “... Never refuse from the bag and from prison ...” In support of this truth, Karataev “told a long story about how he went to a strange grove behind a forest and got caught I watch how he was flogged, tried and handed over to the soldiers. But grief turned into joy: “My brother would go, if not for my sin. And the younger brother has himself-heel guys ... That's it, my dear friend. Rock heads looking. And we all judge: it’s not good, it’s not okay ... "
A meeting with Karataev, a conversation with him, his story about himself, his prayer for the night led Pierre to the feeling that "that the previously destroyed world was now being erected in his soul with new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations." Pierre refused to be transferred from a soldier's booth to an officer's, because only here, in communication with Karataev, through what he understood in Karataev, did he receive "calmness and agreement with himself." Separated by a French escort from Karataev when leaving Moscow, "Pierre, from the third crossing, has already connected again with Karataev and ... a dog that has chosen Karataev as its owner."
On the way, Karataev fell ill with a fever, "weakened every day", moaning softly, lying down on halts, an "increased smell" emanated from him. At night, Karataev "usually came to life from a feverish fit and was especially animated." Pierre heard how, “hiding himself ... with his overcoat ... in his disputed, pleasant, but weak, painful voice,” Karataev told the soldiers a story that Pierre had heard from him six times already. “This story was about an old merchant who lived decently and God-fearing with his family and once went with a friend, a wealthy merchant, to Macarius.” “Having stopped at the inn, both merchants fell asleep, and the next day the merchant’s friend was found stabbed to death and robbed. The bloodied knife was found under the old merchant's pillow. The merchant was tried, punished with a whip, and, pulling out his nostrils, ... was exiled to hard labor. At hard labor, after “ten years or more,” the old man told his comrades, “how the whole thing was ... I, he says, do not grieve about myself. It means that God found me. One thing, he says, I feel sorry for my old woman and children.
In the company of listeners-convicts turned out to be "the same person ... that killed the merchant." He admitted that “he did the same thing” and “put a knife under the head of a sleepy man. Forgive me, he says, grandfather, you are me for the sake of Christ.
“The old man says,” Karataev continues his story, “God, they say, will forgive you, and we are all sinners, he says, I suffer for my sins.”
Telling, Karataev " brighter and brighter beamed with an enthusiastic smile », « as if in what he now had to tell lay the main charm and all the significance of the story ". The true killer "revealed ... by the authorities." But, "while the court and the case," the old man "God has forgiven - he died." The “mysterious meaning” of Karataev’s story, “the enthusiastic joy that shone in Karataev’s face at this story, the mysterious meaning of this joy ... now vaguely and joyfully filled Pierre’s soul,” the writer concludes.
The next morning, after the night story about the old merchant and the repentant villain, Karataev “sat in his overcoat, leaning against a birch. In his face, in addition to the expression of yesterday's joyful tenderness at the story of the innocent suffering of the merchant, there was also an expression of quiet solemnity. “Karataev looked at Pierre with his kind, round eyes, now covered with tears, and, apparently, called him to him, wanted to say something.”
“When the prisoners set off again ... Karataev was sitting on the edge of the road, by a birch; and two Frenchmen were saying something over him. Then "... from the place where Karataev was sitting, a shot was heard," and "a dog howled." At the next halt, Karataev was no longer among the prisoners. Before sunrise the next day, the prisoners were released by a detachment of Denisov and Dolokhov.
Pierre owes much to Karataev for his mental recovery., in communication with which " in captivity, he learned that God in Karataev is greater, infinite and incomprehensible than in the Architecton of the universe recognized by the Masons. He felt the feeling of a man who found what he was looking for under his feet, while he strained his eyes, looking far away from him. ».
Karataev has now become a criterion for Pierre in assessing other people. Remembering Prince Andrei, “he remembered Karataev, his death, and involuntarily began to compare these two people, so different and at the same time so similar in love, which he had for both, and because both lived and both died.”
Telling his relatives about his experience, he says about Karataev: “... You can't understand what I learned from this illiterate fool man ».