Show Notes
Pierre wins the Duel and thereafter cannot stand to be in the presence of his wife. The night after the conflict he avoids the marital bedroom in preference of his late father’s room. Pierre desires to fall asleep and forget all. Yet a storm of emotions prevents any rest.
Pierre relives his rash decision to marry, which he now realizes would inevitably lead to dreadful consequences. He acknowledges that even when he first expressed love for Hélène, it was not a genuine.
Tolstoy brings you into Pierre’s soul. Pierre recognizes his own sinful pride in his wife’s majestic beauty and appreciation of how she glides through Society. She is so out-of-reach that he could not resist. Yet at her core, he knows her to be depraved. He recalls how her corrupt brother, Anatole, would come to borrow money and take un-natural liberties, like kissing her naked shoulders. He notes how she would assent to the affection. He then relives the time he asked if she felt any symptoms of pregnancy. She belittled him, laughing contemptuously, and voiced she was not the type of fool to want to have children and especially not with Pierre.
Pierre digested these moral sufferings while his adversary faced physical wounds. He agonizes: Why did I say “I love you” (Je vous aime).
His minds wonder to both philosophy and history – including the notion of causation and justification, a topic which Tolstoy pours over in his Second Epilogue. Pierre considers how Louis XVI was executed during the French Revolution when those who gained power labeled him dishonorable and a criminal. From a certain point, the King’s enemies were right. Yet so were those who canonized Louis. Everyone is right depending on their perspective. Pierre is paraphrasing a theme of the Biblical Book of Judges – where there was no King and every man did what was right in his own eyes.
Pierre concludes that it is not worth tormenting oneself over life’s endless complexity when one has only a moment of life in comparison with eternity. He senses: if you are alive— one must live! Tolstoy is such a reader of the Biblical Wisdom literature that he is infusing his character with some of notions from the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes, namely: that our lives are but a shadow in the face of the vast heavens; that we will never understand the nature of the world; and that there is much more beyond cause and effect. For Pierre, he will never be able to fully grasp how his marriage led to such anguish.
Pierre then references Moliére, the 17th Century French playwright. The famous quote goes through his mind – “But what the devil was he doing in that galley?” This phrase was a popular way of voicing frustration when someone gets tangled up in a mess of their own making. It is taken from 'The Imposture of Scapin,' 1671, where the cunning main character tricks an older man into believing his son was lured onto a Turkish ship and would be sold into slavery unless the father pays a ransom. As the father is tricked, he can only replay the quote in his mind. Pierre sees himself as someone caught in such a web of deceit.
This frustration led Pierre to instruct his valet to pack as he would be leaving for Petersburg. He could not be around Hélène another moment. She does not let him leave without giving him a piece of her mind. She confronts him and lectures, “So it seems you’re a hero?, What was this duel about?” He doesn’t answer and she continues: “You believe everything you’re told….including that Dolokhov was my lover. Well, what have you proved? That you’re a fool (que vous êtes un sot). But everybody knew that! And what will be the result? That I shall be a laughingstock…that everyone will say that you, drunk… challenged a man you are jealous of -- a man who’s a better man than you in every way!”
She denies any affair while announcing that she should have taken a lover and concedes preferring Dolokhov’s company. Pierre begs her to stop, while violent feelings stir within. Pierre keeps co
More from War & Peace Podnotes, A Study Guide
As War & Peace delves into to fiction to a much greater degree than the previous section, exploring the Rostov family dynamic throughout 1806, there is a great deal that historically transpired which Tolstoy does not bring you through. In this stretch, Bonaparte was a continental Behemoth, who sets his sights on Prussia, then an industrial power with a highly organized military. The centers that made up the Prussian Kingdom were: Berlin, Potsdam, Königsberg and Danzig. You should recall that based on the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon replaced the Habsburg Family as the principal authority in Central Europe. Austria never again reached such heights of power. Over the next 70 years Austria would lose influence over the dozens of German states while Prussia gained in this regard. It was Prussia, under Otto Von Bismarck, who in 1871 established the nation we know as Germany. In the start of 1806, France remained in a state of war against Russia, England and even Sweden. It was a busy and productive year for "the man of destiny." In February, Napoleon sent General André Messéna to Naples to overthrow the Bourbon King, Ferdinand IV, and install his brother, Joseph. Messéna was successful though fighting continued for months. In the Summer, Napoleon consolidated control of Holland and placed a crown on another brother, Louis. By mid-July, Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine of mostly southern German states, where he compelled alliances. The expanded territory gave the French 60,000 more troops. Napoleon was reshaping Central Europe to assure French influence and limit that of Austria, Prussia, Russia and Great Britain. Napoleon’s desire was to marginalize Britain economically after the Brtis won control of the seas at the Battle of Trafalgar, which preceded Austerlitz by a month. Just off the Southwest coast of France, the French Navy was decimated. The English controlled the water, but Napoleon was dominant on land and wanted to implement the Continental Commerce System. He had success in spreading French administrative, legal and social reforms—including the Napoleonic Code. When possible and practical, he moved to end the remnants of feudalism. The Code abolished a plethora feudal privileges, dismantled manorial courts and freed some peasants, granting basic civil rights and a semblance of equality before the law. To continue to foster his ambitions, Napoleon set his sights on Prussia, which included former Polish territory. Poland was a former Kingdom cut up (partitioned) by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, where many Polish nobles committed allegiance to the Czar or King of Prussia. While the Czar worked with much of the nobility of Poland, the peasants filled the ranks and endured. Czar Alexander was 27 in 1806. Despite the historic loss at Austerlitz, Alexander, would rule for nearly two more decades. He was fortunate that his population was forgiving. Alexander did not enter into serious peace negotiations nor publicly concede the loss. Many among the Russian nobility blamed the result on the Austrians. There are memoirs from Phillip Vigel, then a 20 year-old Russian diplomat, who detailed his observations of the mood in Moscow and Petersburg. The Muscovites were more vocal in castigating the Czar. Some would even laud Napoleon. There, Bonaparte earned nickname befitting a Russian Conqueror, Napoleoskha. In Petersburg, the population shared the humiliation. They would explain the result as a turn of luck. Vigel expressed that Petersburg society felt the desire to get themselves off the floor and prove themselves. He sensed a general optimism of youth. He also notes how the English desired Russia as allies against the French and Czar was their lifeline from French domination. Consequently, Russia spent the summer of 1806 preparing for a new war -- reorganizing and refilling their ranks. General Kutuzov fades into obscurity for a time. Just prior to Austerlitz, in the Fall of 1805, Alexander made a notable a
We now get taken from March of 1806, through the warmer months and then to the end of the year. Quite the fast-forward!
We have reached the pivotal chapter involving the death of the Little Princess and birth of the Andrei’s son.
We move further into March of 1806 and return to Bald Hills, the estate of Andrei’s father. Despite letters and official inquiries, Andrei’s body had not been found nor was he on the list of prisoners.
This episode examines some likely influences in Tolstoy’s writing of the Duel between Pierre & Dolokhov.