Anatol Kuragin knows what the hell it is. The Kuragin family in Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"

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Extraordinary personalities in literature, art, and indeed in real life often look much more attractive than respectable and honest ones. Rakes and dandies evoke feelings of envy among representatives of their sex and admiration and love among the opposite. At the same time, everyone may well know the most unattractive aspects of the character of these characters, but still flock to them like moths to the light. Anatol Kuragin from the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a classic representative of this image.

Appearance of Anatoly Kuragin

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

We invite you to familiarize yourself with “The Image and Characteristics of Andrei Bolkonsky” in Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”

In the novel, Tolstoy describes him as an incredibly beautiful black-browed man, 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 reaction of other characters in the novel to him - both men and women freeze in awe when they see this young man. Exclamation: “How good!” often haunts young Kuragin.

We know very little about his physique - during the war with Napoleon he was a “big, plump man,” but whether he always had this build is difficult to say.

Biography

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

Anatole received an excellent education abroad, because “the education there is much better than ours,” he presumably studied in France. Like all aristocrats, Anatole prefers French in his everyday speech.

Unfortunately, his education did not guarantee his adaptability in life and the ability to properly 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 to avoid incest.

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

Like most representatives of the aristocracy, Kuragin gives preference to military service. “During his regiment’s stay in Poland, a poor Polish 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 negotiated for himself the right to be considered a single man.”

No matter how much 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 takes part in the military events of 1812 against Napoleonic troops and is seriously injured - his leg has to be amputated. The further fate of the handsome Anatole is unknown; Tolstoy does not say anything more about him, presumably that he died in the same 1812.

Personality and character of Anatoly Kuragin

If Kuragin were a hero of a folk epic, then his constant epithet would be the word “stupid.” In the novel, Tolstoy often uses words such as “fool” and “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 in intelligence or intelligence. He wastes his life without thinking about his future. “He was not able to consider how his actions might affect others, nor what might come of such or such an action.”

Kuragin loves to spend time drinking and carousing: “He did not miss a single revelry with Danilov and other merry fellows of Moscow.” “The 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 just fine - 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 drinking a fair share of alcohol, Anatole behaves very aggressively: “He wanted to break something. He pushed the lackeys away and pulled the frame, but the frame did not give up. He broke the glass."

The fact of the presence of sober people somehow upsets Kuragin, he tries to get everyone present drunk. He tries to gradually drag Bezukhov into his revelry, often getting him drunk.

Those around him, not involved in Kuragin’s revelry and debauchery, directly speak of him as a “real robber,” as well as of his friend Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov. A distinctive feature that arouses favor towards Dolokhov in society is his ability to occupy an advantageous position and speak out eloquently and clearly. Despite his much better level of knowledge, Anatole lacks such skills - he sometimes has difficulty expressing 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 is used to living in grand style. An idle life requires numerous financial expenses, 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 give back the borrowed money, but he is not even in any way going to initiate a return. “He lived more than twenty thousand a year in money and the same amount in debts that creditors demanded from his father.” Naturally, this state of affairs did not suit the father and became the reason for his dissatisfaction, especially since his son’s appetite inexorably continued to grow. 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 train of his thoughts. There is no end in sight to Anatoly Kuragin’s debts, this state of affairs forces the father to make a cruel verdict, the father decides not to pay any more 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 a continuous amusement.”

Kuragin is not interested in either career growth or organizing his life; he prefers to live one day at a time, he wants his life to always be like a holiday.

Self-confidence and complacency are another component 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 carried his head high with a calm conscience.”

In fact, he is not far from these same “scoundrels.” Feelings of tactlessness and meanness prevail in him. He's a scoundrel like no other. He takes advantage of Natalya Rostova's inexperience and naivety and incites her to escape.

It is difficult to find positive character traits in the image of Anatoly Kuragin.

These, perhaps, can be partially attributed to generosity, which becomes more of a vice than a noble feeling, because Kuragin’s generosity is aimed at arranging drinking and fun for himself and his friends. Kuragin’s talents are also hard to find during the day: he has no musical or choreographic talents, and is not distinguished by either the ability to conduct a conversation or determination. It seems that the only thing the young man succeeded in was drunken carousing and love affairs. And the latter sometimes become partly the merit of other people. So, for example, sister Elena writes a letter to Natalya, instead of her careless brother who cannot express himself beautifully, Dolokhov comes up with an escape plan for Natalya and Anatoly.

Military service of Anatoly Kuragin

Like most young people, Anatol Kuragin is in military service. At first he serves in the guard, then becomes a servant in the army. He is not interested in moving up the career ladder. His promotions are taken care of by his father, who, thanks to his connections, was able to secure for his son “the position of adjutant to the commander-in-chief.”

Anatole prefers to live one day at a time; he is depressed by the thought that he needs to plan something or achieve something in life (if it is not gratitude to a new passion).

Tolstoy says little about how Kuragin behaved at the front. It is likely that in this way the author wanted to emphasize Kuragin’s apathy and indifference to everything that was not related to celebrations, drinking and brawls.

Anatol Kuragin and Princess Maria Bolkonskaya

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

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

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

Princess Marie is extremely unattractive, she is not popular in society, which is why the girl has no suitors. She has every opportunity to remain an old maid. The Bolkonskys realize this, and so does the girl herself. She is in no hurry to rush into Kuragin’s arms, but still 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 his back arched back, shaking one outstretched leg and slightly bowing his head in silence, looking cheerfully 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, for whom Kuragin more and more begins to experience “a passionate, brutal feeling that came over him with extreme speed and prompted him to the most rude and daring actions.” . Young Marie could not predict these thoughts, but her father was more insightful - he was dumbfounded by such behavior of a potential groom. An accident helped cut the Gordian knot. Marie witnesses an unpleasant scene. “She looked up and two steps away she saw Anatole, who was hugging the French woman and whispering something to her.” Kuragin fails to get out of this situation. He gets rejected.

Natalya Rostova and Anatol Kuragin

Anatol Kuragin became the cause of the broken hearts of more than one girl. In the case of Natalya Rostova, his love affairs almost turned into a tragedy in the girl’s life.

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

Does Anatole love Natalya? It's doubtful, most likely not. For Kuragin, this is just another prank and a way to harm Prince Andrei.

The young people first met at the opera. Anatole became interested in the 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 liked you, and not be familiar with him.” Kuragin manages to easily win the girl’s heart.

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

Kuragin's open intentions, his undisguised carnal desire for her excites the girl's mind. It becomes a reason to experience new emotions and feelings. The excitement that Natalya feels towards Kuragin frightens her and pleasantly pleases her at the same time. Rostova “felt terribly close to this man.” At the time of her acquaintance with Kuragin, the girl was already engaged to Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. This engagement was not an act of violence; Natalya did not feel disgust for the upcoming wedding. And the prince’s personality itself was sweet and charming for a girl. The issue 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 arouses interest and curiosity on the part of the girl.

Rostova perceives Anatole’s feelings as reality. She has no idea that this is another deception on his part. Kuragin, spurred on by intrigue and caught up in excitement, cannot stop. With the help of his sister, he writes a letter to Natalya, where he reveals to the girl his feelings of love and affection that have arisen, and encourages her to escape. This letter achieved the desired goal - Natalya refuses Bolkonsky and prepares to run away with Kuragin. Fortunately for the girl, these plans were not destined to come true. The escape was unsuccessful, Natalya still has hope - she believes that love can overcome all obstacles, but this hope was not destined to come true. While Rostova is tormented by excitement, Kuragin calmly rides around on a sleigh: “His face was ruddy and fresh, his hat with a white plume was put on his side, revealing his curled, pomaded and sprinkled with fine snow hair.” He feels no remorse or shame.

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

Over time, the girl finds out 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 despair the girl drinks arsenic, but the desired effect cannot be achieved - she confesses to what she did, and Natalya is saved.

Anatol Kuragin and Prince Andrei

Naturally, the relatives themselves tried to stop rumors about Anatoly Kuragin’s actions towards Natalya Rostova, both on Natalya’s side and on Anatoly’s side - the publication of such a truth would have played a negative role on the reputation of both families.

The families began to wait for Bolkonsky’s reaction, who might release information.

Prince Andrei is overwhelmed with feelings. He feels humiliated and insulted. Because of Kuragin's bad and ignoble behavior, Bolkonsky found himself in a stupid situation - Natalya Rostova refused to marry him. Since Andrei has the most tender feelings for the girl, such a refusal becomes a heavy blow to his pride. Despite the absurdity of what is happening, Bolkonsky understands that the situation cannot be replayed, even if Natalya herself has already realized her whole mistake and wants to become Bolkonsky’s wife.
“Prince Andrei left for St. Petersburg on business, as he told his relatives, but, in essence, in order to meet there Prince Anatoly 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 Anatoly (this could compromise Natalya), but chases after Kuragin.

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

Thus, Anatol Kuragin in the text is an absolute negative. He has practically no positive character traits. He is not distinguished by either mental abilities, or ingenuity, or valor on the battlefield. Kuragin has no goal in life; he is accustomed to going with the flow, without planning his life. First of all, he is a puppet, but not in the hands of his 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 for the escape of Kuragin and Rostova, inciting Anatoly to new pranks and nonsense. The personality of Anatoly Kuragin brings negativity towards everyone with whom the young man comes into contact.

That War and Peace is “long-winded rubbish.” But no matter how the great Russian writer expresses himself, his creation is a classic of the genre and is revered all over the world: even foreign film directors are increasingly presenting their vision of this epic to film fans.

The work was loved by fans of literature because the writer showed life as it is: friendship and betrayal, love and betrayal. In addition, the author managed to meticulously develop the characters, identifying human psychotypes. Surely there are many dishonest Anatoly Kuragins in the world who invade the lives of married ladies and indifferently break their hearts.

History of creation

It was not without reason that Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy turned to the topic of the War of 1812, because it was a huge shock not only for the empire, but also for the entire Russian people. No matter how beautifully the filmmakers describe the Battle of Borodino (when brave soldiers ride horses against the backdrop of a river, fog and an icy lake), war is always grief, pain, death and tears.

Therefore, the writer began to look at that difficult time in order to show how a person’s character changes against the backdrop of upcoming and past events. The cumbersome epic novel is not just a non-trivial plot telling about love twists and turns. The author brought philosophical thought into his creation.

The idea for the work did not arise immediately for Lev Nikolaevich. Initially, he wanted to tell readers about the Decembrist hero, who was forced to return to his homeland in 1856 after a 30-year exile. Tolstoy wanted to start his story in 1825 to show readers for what offense the main character received such a punishment. But when Lev Nikolaevich thought about 1812, he wanted to consider the life of not only one person, but the entire Russian people as a whole.

The pen master was inspired by the idea. Tolstoy personally visited the place where the Battle of Borodino took place, and also relied on the works of scientists and memoirs of contemporaries of the events described. The writer worked on the novel from 1863 to 1869 and managed to identify more than 550 characters. It is worth noting that readers also remembered anti-heroes, for example, Anatoly Kuragin and his sister Helen, who are ready to do anything for personal gain.

Biography

Anatol Kuragin plays the main role in the work, because thanks to his witchcraft charms, Natasha Rostova plunged into a romantic relationship and sent a letter of refusal to Andrei Bolkonsky. But no matter how attractive the angelic appearance of this young man, whom the author described as a tall and black-browed handsome man, was, it is better not to meddle into his soul. Natasha paid for her passion for this ladies' man.

It is known that Anatole was born into the family of Prince Vasily Kuragin and grew up with his brother Ippolit. Based on the behavior of this hero, we can safely judge that he did not receive the proper education. The guy had a cowardly and selfish character, and also dreamed of living idly, shining in secular society. In addition, mentally Anatole was absolutely nothing.

According to the plot, the ruddy sycophant became interested in Natasha Rostova, who reciprocated the young man’s feelings. And this is not surprising, because Andrei Bolkonsky’s father was against his relationship with Natasha and asked his son to postpone his marriage for a whole year. This was a serious blow for the girl, who gave free rein to her emotions.

In addition, Prince Andrei went to the front, and separation was unacceptable for young Rostova, who was dying of boredom. Kuragin, taking advantage of the opportunity, came to Bald Mountains and seduced Natasha with his beauty.

Perhaps the romance between the main character and Anatole would have continued, if not for one fact: the lover hid the fact that he was married to a Polish girl. But this circumstance did not prevent Kuragin from thinking over a plan to escape from Rostova abroad. On the night when Anatole’s scheme was to be implemented, Marya Akhrosimova, with whom Natasha was visiting, learned about the impending abduction of the girl. At the same time, Rostova learned that her lover had a wedding ring, so the girl tried to commit suicide with arsenic.

Anatole Kuragin, who brought sorrows and misfortunes into people's lives, was expelled from the capital by instruction. Then the reader learns that the hero was in the war, where he received a leg injury. The limb was amputated after the battle. There were rumors in Moscow that the young man had died, but they were not confirmed by reliable facts.

This would-be lover is not mentioned again in Lev Nikolaevich’s novel.

Film adaptations and actors

Those who find Leo Tolstoy’s work boring should know: the book was adapted by famous directors who managed to surprise viewers with the plot and main characters performed by famous cinema stars.

Thanks to full-length films, this novel began to be in demand in bookstores; for example, in 2016, residents of the UK began to buy volumes of War and Peace after the release of the series of the same name. There are many films that tell about the vicissitudes of Bolkonsky, Rostova, Bezukhov and Kuragin. Therefore, we will consider only famous films.

"War and Peace" (1956)

The American representative of cinematic art, King Vidor, surprised the audience because he set his sights on understanding the Russian soul. The director released a film based on Tolstoy's novel of the same name, calling into the cast famous stars who worked with professional costume designers on film sets in Italy.

The roles went to Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, and other stars, and Vittorio Gassman tried on the image of the insidious Anatole.

"War and Peace" (1967)

Soviet filmmakers did not lag behind their Hollywood colleagues and made a big-budget film with expensive sets and costumes. Directed by .

And it is worth saying that the film, which took about six years to complete, won the recognition of the audience: it became the leader in the Soviet box office and won an honorary Oscar. The roles were played by Viktor Stanitsyn, Eduard Martsevich and Boris Zakhava. The image of Kuragin was embodied by.

"War and Peace" (TV series, 2007)

Austrian Robert Dornhelm presented his vision of the Russian novel, completely rewriting the plot. It is noteworthy that the filmmakers did not rely on the images created by the author of the work, so the actors did not advise the appearance of the main characters, but the series was a success with viewers.

Ken Duquesne, who worked on the same set with Callum Turner, played the role of the thief of ladies' hearts. The brilliant cast also included Jessie Buckley.

• Lev Nikolaevich considered his novel unfinished. The work was supposed to end with the return of Natasha and Pierre from exile, but the literary genius never brought his idea to life
• It is widely believed among researchers that Tolstoy’s novel was actually called “War and Peace.” Based on pre-revolutionary spelling, the second word means “world” in the sense of “Universe”. Based on these arguments, some literary scholars interpreted the work differently.
• When war scenes were filmed in the film War and Peace (1956), the producers invited 65 doctors to the “battlefield” who were dressed in soldier uniforms. Thus, doctors could quickly provide assistance to injured stuntmen.

Family
Prince Vasily Kuragin.
For Tolstoy, the world of family is the basis of humanity
society. The Kuragin family in the novel appears as the embodiment of immorality.
Selfishness, hypocrisy, capacity for crime, dishonor for the sake of wealth,
irresponsibility for one's actions in one's personal life - these are the main distinguishing features
features of this family.
And how much destruction the Kuragins caused - Prince
Vasily, Helen, Anatole - into the life of Pierre, Rostov, Natasha, Andrei Bolkonsky!
The Kuragins are the third family unit in the novel -
deprived of generic poetry. Their family closeness and connection is unpoetic, although she
undoubtedly there is - instinctive mutual support and solidarity, a kind of
mutual guarantee of almost animal egoism. This kind of family connection is not positive,
a real family connection, but essentially a negation of it. Real families -
The Rostovs, Bolkonskys - have, of course, against the Kuragins on their side
immeasurable moral superiority; but still an invasion
Kuragin's base 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.

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 courtier's, embroidered, uniform, stockings, shoes and stars, with
with a bright expression on his flat face." The prince said "on
that exquisite French language, which was not only spoken, but also thought
our grandfathers, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that
characteristic of a significant person who has grown old in high society and at court,” “said
always lazy, like an actor speaking the role of an old play." In the eyes of secular society, the prince
Kuragin is a respected person, “close to the emperor, surrounded by a crowd
enthusiastic women, scattering social pleasantries and complacent
chuckling." In words he was a decent, sympathetic person,
but in reality there was constantly an internal struggle in him between desire
appear to be a decent person and the actual depravity of his motives.
Prince Vasily "knew that influence in the world is capital that is necessary
take care that he does not disappear, and, once realizing that if he asks 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 I felt remorse. So, in the case of Princess Drubetskaya, he
felt "something like a remorse" as she reminded him
that “he owed his first steps in the service to her father.” Prince Vasily is not alien to fatherly feelings, although
They are expressed rather in the desire to “attach”
their children rather than giving them fatherly love and warmth. According to Anna Pavlovna
Scherer, people like the prince should not have children.
"...And why
Will people like you have children? If you weren't the father, I
I couldn’t reproach you for anything.” To which the prince replied: “What
what should I do? You know, I did everything I could to raise them.
maybe father." Prince
forced Pierre to marry Helene, while pursuing his own selfish goals. At Anna Pavlovna Sherer's proposal to "marry
the prodigal son Anatole" on Princess Maria Bolkonskaya,
Having learned that the princess is a rich heiress, he says:
"she
has a good name and is rich. Everything I need." At the same time, Prince Vasily
does not think at all about the fact that Princess Marya may be unhappy in her marriage
with the dissolute scamp Anatole, who looked upon his entire life as one
continuous entertainment.
Absorbed all the base, 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 its “monotonous”, “unchanging”
smile and “antique beauty of the body”, she resembles a beautiful,
soulless statue. Helen Scherer enters the salon “noisily with her white ballroom
robe, decorated with ivy and moss, and shining with the whiteness of the shoulders, the gloss of 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 figure, full shoulders, very
open, according to the fashion of that time, chest and back, and as if bringing with it shine
bala. Helen was so beautiful that not only was there not even a shadow noticeable in her
coquetry, but, on the contrary, she seemed ashamed of her undoubted and
too powerful beauty. It was as if she wanted and could not diminish
the actions of this beauty."
Helen personifies immorality and depravity.
The entire Kuragin family are individualists who do not recognize any moral standards,
living according to the unchanging law of fulfilling their insignificant desires. Helen enters
into marriage only for their own enrichment.
She cheats on her husband because her nature is dominated by
animal origin. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy leaves Helen childless. "I
“I’m not such a fool as to have children,” she admits. Also,
being Pierre's wife, Helene, in front of the whole society, is engaged in the construction
your personal life.
In addition to a luxurious bust, a rich and beautiful body,
this representative of high society had an extraordinary ability to hide
his mental and moral squalor, and all this thanks only to grace
her manners and memorization of certain phrases and techniques. Shamelessness manifested itself in her
under such grandiose high-society forms that aroused in others a little
Isn't it respect?
Helen is completely devoid of patriotic feelings. At that
while the whole country rose up to fight Napoleon, and even the high society
took part in this struggle in his own way (“they didn’t 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 all of Napoleon's attempts to
reconciliation."
When the threat of capture of Moscow by Napoleonic troops
became obvious, Helen went abroad. And there she shone under the imperial
yard But now the court returns to St. Petersburg.
"Helen,
Having returned with the court from Vilna to St. Petersburg, she was in
difficult situation. In St. 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
angina, but in intimate circles they talked about how the queen’s life physician
Spanish prescribed Helen small doses of some medicine to produce
known action; but like Helen, tormented by the fact that the old count
suspected her, and because the husband to whom she wrote (that unfortunate depraved
Pierre), did not answer her, suddenly took a huge dose of the medicine prescribed to her and
died in agony before help could be given."
Ippolit Kuragin.
"...Prince Hippolyte amazed with his
extraordinary resemblance to her beautiful sister, and even more so, despite
similarity, he was amazingly bad-looking. His facial features were the same as those
sister, but with her everything was illuminated by a cheerful, self-satisfied, young
an unchanging smile and extraordinary, antique beauty of the body. My brother, on the contrary,
the same face was clouded with idiocy and invariably expressed self-confident
disgust, and the body was thin and weak. Eyes, nose, mouth - everything was shrinking like
as if in one vague, boring grimace, and the arms and legs always took
unnatural position."
Hippolytus was unusually stupid. Because of self-confidence
to whom he spoke, no one could understand whether what he said was very smart or very stupid.
At Scherer's reception he appears to us "in
in a 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 is not at all his
didn't bother me.
His stupidity was manifested in the fact that he sometimes
spoke, and then understood what he said. Hippolytus often spoke and acted
inappropriately, expressed his opinions when no one needed them. He
liked to insert phrases into the conversation that were completely unrelated to the essence of the discussion
topics.
The character of Hippolytus can serve as a living example of
that even positive idiocy is sometimes presented in the world as something having
meaning due to the gloss attached to knowledge of the French language, and that
the extraordinary property of this language to support and at the same time mask
spiritual emptiness.
Prince Vasily calls Ippolit "deceased
a fool." Tolstoy in the novel is "sluggish and breaking."
These are the dominant character traits of Hippolytus. Ippolit is stupid, but he is his
stupidity at least does not harm anyone, unlike his younger brother
Anatoly.

Anatol Kuragin.
Anatol Kuragin, according to Tolstoy, is “simple
and with carnal inclinations." These are the dominant traits
Anatole's character. He looked upon his whole life as a continuous amusement,
which someone like that for some reason agreed to arrange for him. The author’s characterization of Anatole is as follows:
"He wasn't
unable to think about how his actions might affect others, nor
what might come out of such or such an act of his.”
Anatole is completely free from considerations
responsibility and consequences of what he does. His selfishness is immediate,
animal-naive and good-natured, absolute egoism, for he is not constrained by anything
Anatole inside, in consciousness, feeling. Kuragin simply lacks the ability to know
what will happen beyond that moment of his pleasure, and how will it affect his life?
other people, as others will see. All this does not exist for him at all.
He is sincerely convinced, instinctively, with his whole being, that everything around him has
Its sole purpose is entertainment and it exists for this. No looking back
people, on their opinion, on the consequences, no distant goal that would force
focus on achieving it, no remorse, no thoughts,
hesitation, doubt - Anatole, whatever he did, naturally and sincerely
considers himself an impeccable person and holds his beautiful head high: freedom is truly limitless, freedom in actions and self-awareness.
Such complete freedom was given to Anatoly
meaninglessness. A person who consciously relates to life is already subordinated, like
Pierre, the need to understand and solve, 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, stupidly, animalistically, but easily and
funny.
Marriage to a "rich ugly heiress" -
Maria Bolkonskaya seems to him like just another amusement. "A
Why not marry if she is very rich? It never gets in the way" -
thought Anatole.

Anatol Kuragin - son of Prince Vasily, officer, ladies' man. Anatole always gets into some unpleasant situations, from which his father always pulls him out. His favorite pastime is playing cards and carousing with his friend Dolokhov. Anatole is stupid and not talkative, but he himself is always confident in his uniqueness.

He is very handsome and dresses fashionably, so he is popular with women. Anatole is used to what women like, so he treats them with contempt, realizing his superiority. He does not know how to experience strong feelings, he does not know what love is. Anatole is an arrogant and depraved person, he charms Natasha Rostova and wants to take her away and secretly marry her, although he himself is already married to a Polish girl and hides this from everyone. Dolokhov warns him that he could end up on trial for bigamy, but this does not scare him, he just wants to get the girl he likes, although in his heart he does not have strong feelings for her, otherwise he could simply ask for her hand. The kidnapping is disrupted and Pierre expels him from the city. Kuragin has to hide from Andrei Bolkonsky, who wants to challenge him to a duel because Anatole took his bride away from him. Their meeting took place only in the infirmary: Andrei lay with a mortal wound, and Kuragin’s leg was amputated.

Anatol Kuragin, one of the heroes of L. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” occupies a significant place in the work. This is an interesting image that plays a very important role - it helps in revealing other images of the novel.

Anatole is the son of Prince Vasily Kuragin, an officer, brother of Hippolyte and Helen. Like all members of the Kuragin family, Anatole is selfish and spoiled. All Kuragins use other people for their own purposes, to satisfy their own desires. Helen openly cheats on her husband and does not spare his pride. Helen, knowing that Natasha is the fiancée of Andrei Bolkonsky, without hesitation at all, first arranges dates for her brother and Natasha, and then helps Anatoly kidnap the girl.

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Pierre tries to explain to Anatole the wrongness of his behavior: “... besides your pleasure, there is happiness, the peace of other people, ... you are ruining your whole life because you want to have fun.” Prince Vasily calls his son a “restless fool” who brings him a lot of trouble: “... this Anatole costs me forty thousand a year...”

The external characteristics of Anatoly Kuragin are quite attractive. He is a tall, handsome man with a good-natured and “victorious appearance”, “beautiful big” eyes and light brown hair. But such a description already alarms the reader. Having become acquainted with other heroes, we notice that Tolstoy’s most beloved heroes are ugly in appearance, but have a rich inner world. There is nothing hidden behind Anatole’s external beauty, there is emptiness there. He is dapper, stupid, arrogant, depraved, “but he also had the ability of calm and unchangeable confidence, precious for the world.” His life is spent in continuous revelry, he lives only for his own pleasure and amusement. The hero does not care about relationships with other people: “He was not able to think about how his actions might affect others, nor what could come out of such or such an action.” Women cause him contempt, he feels superior to them, because he is used to being liked, but he himself did not experience serious feelings for any of them.

Prince Vasily is trying to marry his son to Princess Marya Bolkonskaya. Anatole made an impression on her at first, but his narrow-mindedness, as well as his depravity, save the princess from this marriage. Kuragin sends Anatoly from St. Petersburg to Moscow, hoping that there his son will take up the post of adjutant to the commander-in-chief, and will also try to make a good party. Only the closest people knew that Kuragin was married two years ago. When his regiment was stationed in Poland, Anatole was forced to marry the daughter of a landowner, but “Anatole very soon abandoned his wife and for the money that he agreed to send to his father-in-law, he negotiated for himself the right to be considered a single man.”

Natasha Rostova also succumbed to the hero’s charm and was ready to run away with him. Only after learning that Kuragin is married does she give up her idea, but this story caused her deep emotional trauma. Natasha's romance with Anatole was also a blow for Andrei Bolkonsky, who wants to take revenge on the offender by challenging him to a duel. But Prince Andrei meets Kuragin only when he is seriously wounded, seeing Anatoly in the same condition, whose leg was amputated. Bolkonsky forgives Kuragin, and with this we also say goodbye to this hero. He has fulfilled his role in the novel; he no longer has a place among the heroes.

Anatole is attractive on the outside, completely empty on the inside, but nevertheless plays an important role in the novel. Other heroes of the work pass through his image and receive life lessons that help them find the right path in their spiritual quest.