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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Volume 2, Part 1: Chapters 1–6
Explanation and Analysis—French Revolution:
When Pierre begins to suspect that his wife, Hélène Kuragin, has conducted an affair with his former friend Dolokhov, Pierre challenges Dolokhov to a duel, despite Dolokhov's reputation as a skilled duelist. After his surprising victory, which leaves Dolokhov in a grievously injured state, Pierre begins to feel that he had no right to take, or attempt to take, the life of another. In his agitated reflections, he alludes to various figures from the French Revolution:
“Louis XVI was executed for being, as they said, dishonest and criminal,” came into Pierre’s head, “and they were right from their point of view, and equally right were those who died a martyr’s death for him and counted him among the saints. Then Robespierre was executed because he was a despot. Who’s right, and who’s wrong? No one. You’re alive—so live: tomorrow you’ll die, just as I could have died an hour ago. And is it worth suffering, when there’s only a second left to live compared with eternity?”
Louis XVI was the final King of France prior to the French Revolution. Robespierre, in contrast, was a leader of the French Revolution and a fierce opponent of the king, whose execution he supported. Both men, Pierre argues, "were right from their point of view," and Robespierre too, Pierre adds, was executed before the close of the Revolution. Unable to determine who is "right" and who is "wrong" in this conflict, he concludes that "no one" is entirely right or wrong and that, ultimately, the most important thing is to make good use of one's own life. Through these allusions, Pierre attempts to sort out his own thoughts following the duel. Like these famous enemies in French history, neither Pierre nor Dolokhov is entirely right, nor entirely wrong, and therefore neither, Pierre feels, deserves death.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Part 5: Chapters 18–22
Explanation and Analysis—The Comet of 1812:
Though Pierre worries for Natasha after her impulsive attempt to elope with the bigamous Anatole, putting an embarrassing and potentially ruinous end to her engagement with Prince Andrei, he is nevertheless struck by the grateful look she gives him when he offers to help her in the home of Marya Dmitrievna. Outside, he continues to dwell pleasurably upon Natasha's gratitude. At this pivotal moment in the novel, Tolstoy employs allusion, simile, and imagery in his depiction of the Great Comet of 1812:
Almost in the middle of that sky [...] stood the huge, bright comet of the year 1812—surrounded, strewn with stars on all sides, but different from them in its closeness to the earth, its white light and long, raised tail [...] Pierre, his eyes wet with tears, gazed joyfully at this bright star, which, having flown with inexpressible speed through immeasurable space on its parabolic course, suddenly, like an arrow piercing the earth, seemed to have struck here its one chosen spot in the black sky and stopped, its tail raised energetically, its white light shining and playing among the countless other shimmering stars.
Just as Pierre is beginning to feel more optimistic about the future, he sees a comet streak across the sky. Here, Tolstoy alludes to an actual historical comet, the Great Comet of 1812 (also sometimes referred to as the Great Comet of 1811), which was visible to the naked eye for an extended period of time and which was the object of a good deal of commentary in the early 19th century. In his depiction of the comet, Tolstoy employs striking imagery, noting the "white light and long, raised tail" of the comet, this "bright star" that was "strewn with stars on all sides." In a simile, he adds that it appeared "like an arrow piercing the earth." Pierre attributes great meaning to this noteworthy sight, feeling that it cements his status as a figure who will make a name for himself in the war against Napoleon.
Volume 3, Part 3: Chapters 1–4
Explanation and Analysis—Zeno's Paradoxes:
While reflecting upon the nature of history and historical narratives, Tolstoy alludes to one of the famous paradoxes of the Ancient Greek philosopher Zeno:
A well-known so-called sophism of the ancients posits that Achilles can never overtake a tortoise that is walking ahead of him, even though Achilles walks ten times faster than the tortoise: while Achilles covers the distance that separates him from the tortoise, the tortoise will get ahead of him by one tenth of that distance; Achilles covers that one tenth, the tortoise gets ahead by one hundredth, and so on to infinity. The ancients considered this problem insoluble.
In Zeno's well-known thought problem, "Achilles can never overtake a tortoise" in a race because the tortoise, despite its slower speed, will still continuously advance in the interval of time that it takes Achilles to reach the tortoise. By the time Achilles has gotten halfway to the tortoise, the tortoise has already moved past its original point, requiring Achilles to, again, catch up with it.
Here, Tolstoy alludes to this apparent paradox in order to explain his theory of history. Humans, he notes, must divide the "continuous" flow of time into "arbitrarily chosen units." While time is constantly moving forward, then, historians must nevertheless divide history into a series of sequential but distinct events in order to create an intelligible "story" with a beginning and end. For Tolstoy, the human inability to perceive time, and history, as a continuous and eternal flow leads to various fallacies in our understanding of history, such as our focus on the personalities of famous individuals such as Napoleon.
Related Themes:
