Quote 4
When
everything was ready, the stranger opened his eyes, moved to the
table, filled a tumbler with tea for himself and one for the beardless
old man to whom he passed it. Pierre began to feel a sense of uneasiness,
and the need, even the inevitability, of entering into conversation
with this stranger.
In this passage, from Book Five, Chapter 1,
Pierre is waiting at the Torzhok station for a connection on his
way to St. Petersburg, having just left his wife after discovering
she has been cheating on him with his friend. Pierre is bitter and
depressed, and as he waits mindlessly he meets a mysterious old
man with a strange servant—two figures who, in their dreamlike,
almost surreal quality, contrast with the realistic normalcy of
most characters in War and Peace. The old man wears
a ring with a death’s head on it, and he sits in total Zen-like
silence for a long time. His servant appears to have no beard, not
because he has recently shaved but because no beard has ever grown.
The slightly androgynous, sexless quality of both men inevitably
affects Pierre, who has just been punished, in effect, for marrying
the wrong woman as a result of sexual passion. The two men may unconsciously
represent a freedom from the impulses of sex, and therefore a liberation
of the spirit. It is precisely a spiritual rebirth for which Pierre
yearns in his present misery. As we see with Pierre always, he seeks
spiritual rebirth not through introspection or books alone, but
through a connection with people. Consequently, even though these
two men make Pierre “uneasy,” he does not avoid them, as Andrew
would likely do, but rather feels it inevitable that he will interact
with them and gain something from them.
Although the first stranger mentioned appears to be the
master of the beardless man who is the servant, it is nevertheless
the first man who pours a glass of tea for the beardless man. While
the servant later does perform tasks for his master, this initial
tea ceremony is somewhat symbolic, creating an environment of social
equality. This hint of a leveling of social ranks may unconsciously
appeal to Pierre, whose most important influence later in the novel
comes not from a tsar, prince, or emperor, but from a simple and
humble Russian peasant, Platon Karataev. The two strangers may thus
also represent an ideal of a classless society, or at least an ideal
of a strong, comradely connection between individuals of different
classes.
