Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Inexplicable Love
War and Peace is full of romantic mate-choices
made without a full grasp of their consequences, some of them with
disastrous results. Pierre marries the beautiful Helene in a daze
of sexual passion and naïve trust, and his life almost immediately
becomes a constant torment as Helene cheats on him with his friend.
Natasha is smitten with the rakish Anatole and prepares to elope
with him without seeing that his irresponsible ways would bring
her to misery. Her crush on Anatole costs her a chance with Andrew,
who cannot forgive her lapse. In both cases, an unreasoned romantic
impulse ends up being destructive. Yet Tolstoy does not condemn
irrational love. The two great love stories that conclude the novel—between
Natasha and Pierre and between Mary and Nicholas—both take their
lovers, and us as readers, by surprise. It suddenly occurs to all
of them that they are in love, despite having very different expectations
in mind. Unexplained love can be a horrible mistake, but it can
also be wonderful. At its best, unpredictable love is a symbol of
the mysterious forces of human life and instinct that cannot be
denied.
Financial Loss
The loss of substantial amounts of money or property is
a recurrent motif throughout the novel, and is associated in particular
with the Rostov family. The family’s fortunes are already in decline
at the beginning of the novel, as the irresponsible Count Rostov
has dissipated his children’s inheritance through careless spending.
Nicholas’s gambling losses accelerate the decline, and then the
family is forced to abandon their Moscow home and most of their
belongings as the French invade the city. But these financial losses
are not necessarily signs of failure. Tolstoy, who himself gave
away possessions in search of spiritual regeneration later in life,
shows in War and Peace the positive side of the
Rostovs’ material misfortunes. Count Rostov’s gracious payment of
Nicholas’s debts shows a powerful connection between father and
son, a connection that Nicholas affirms by vowing to repay his debt
in five years. His early financial losses appear to leave him wiser,
and later in life he becomes a savvy landowner. Moreover, the Rostov
spirit for life, unhindered by compromised finances, ends up breeding
charismatic children who marry into two of the largest fortunes
in Russia—that of the Bolkonskis and that of the Bezukhovs. In a
sense, Tolstoy may even be hinting that financial carelessness has
the capacity to ultimately produce a spiritual richness worth far
more than the mere material wealth.
Death as a Revelation
Death in War and Peace is never just
a biological end, but almost always a moral event that brings some
philosophical revelation. The first major instance of death as a
revelation is Andrew’s near-death experience at Austerlitz, when
he lies on the field blissfully aware of how little the external
world matters and rejoicing that its burden has been lifted from
his shoulders. Andrew does not even care that Napoleon himself passes
by and comments on him, as earthly values of rank and power have
lost all their meaning to him. Tolstoy’s portrayals of death’s revelatory
power also include epiphanies some characters experience upon the
deaths of others. One example is Pierre’s powerful reaction to the
execution of the Russian prisoners of war in the French army camp,
which leads him to radical thoughts on the insanity of war and the
brotherhood of mankind. Pierre’s reverence for the inspirational
Platon makes the latter’s execution prompt an existential crisis
in Pierre. Similarly, Andrew’s death leads Natasha to a profound
change in her outlook, making her far more reflective and serious
than ever before. Perhaps Natasha, without the experience of grieving
for Andrew, would never become mature enough to marry Pierre in
the end. In this sense, death is not merely the end of life, but
a powerful lesson in faith and philosophy.
