Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Irrationality of Human Motives
Although a large portion of War and Peace focuses
on war, which is associated in our minds with clear-headed strategy
and sensible reasoning, Tolstoy constantly emphasizes the irrational
motives for human behavior in both peace and war. Wisdom is linked
not to reason but to an acceptance of how mysterious our actions
can be, even to ourselves. General Kutuzov emerges as a great leader
not because he develops a logical plan and then demands that everyone
follow it, but rather because he is willing to adapt to the flow
of events and think on his feet. He revises his plan as each stage
turns out to be vastly different from what was expected. Similarly
irrational actions include Nicholas’s sudden decision to wed Mary
after previously resolving to go back to Sonya, and Natasha’s surprising
marriage to Pierre. Yet almost all the irrational actions we see
in the novel turn out successfully, in accordance with instincts
in human life that, for Tolstoy, lie far deeper than our reasoning
minds.
The Search for the Meaning of Life
Several characters in War and Peace experience
sudden revelations about the absurdity of existence. Andrew, for
instance, has a near-death experience at Austerlitz that shows him
a glimpse of the truth behind the falsity of earthly life. While
Andrew needs a brush with death to bring about this spiritual vision,
Pierre spends most of the novel wondering why his life is so empty
and artificial. The immediate cause of Pierre’s philosophizing is
his marriage to the wrong woman, but his pondering goes beyond Helene
alone, to include the vast mystery of why humans are put on Earth.
Pierre’s involvement with the mystical practice of Freemasonry constitutes
his attempt to give meaning to his life. Tolstoy, however, shows
the inadequacies of this approach, as Pierre grows bored with the
Masons and dissatisfied with their passivity. Pierre’s involvement
with politics, shown in his short-lived, crazy obsession with assassinating
Napoleon, is equally shallow. What finally gives meaning to Pierre’s
life is the experience of real love with Natasha.
The Limits of Leadership
Tolstoy explores characters on both the highest and lowest
rungs of the social ladder in War and Peace, giving
us realistic portraits of peasants and tsars, servants and emperors.
Consequently, we not only get a close look at lofty leaders like
Napoleon and Alexander, but also a chance to view them against the
backdrop of society as a whole, an opportunity to assess these leaders’
overall usefulness and role on a general level. In this regard,
Tolstoy gives us a no-nonsense, democratic evaluation of princes,
generals, and other supposed leaders—and the result is not very
flattering. Nicholas’s first glimpse of Alexander produces surprise
at the fact that the tsar is just an ordinary man. Our view of Napoleon
is even worse: when we see him in his bathroom getting his plump
little body rubbed down, it is hard to imagine him as the grand
conqueror of Europe. Tolstoy’s philosophy of history justifies his
cynicism toward leaders, for, in his view, history is not a creation
of great men, but is rather the result of millions of individual
chains of cause and effect too small to be analyzed independently.
Even emperors, though they may imagine they rule the world, are
caught in these chains of circumstance.
