War and Peace: Metaphors 8 key examples

Just as "the owner of a spinning mill" keeps an eye out for "an idle spinner or the odd one squealing too loudly," so too does Anna Pavlovna keep a close eye on the attendees of the soiree, fostering conversation when some group has "fallen silent" or otherwise calming a group that has become "too talkative." The soiree, Tolstoy suggests, is something of a well-oiled machine, and the gracious Anna Pavlovna keeps this "conversation machine running evenly and properly."

At first, Pierre expects Bazdeev to express confidence in his own statements of Christian faith. Bazdeev, who reveals that he is a freemason, a member of a secretive fraternal society that was introduced to Russia in the 18th century, surprises Pierre by acknowledging that he cannot make firm claims about "the truth." Instead, Bazdeev claims, a person can only know the truth in a "stone by stone" fashion, in collaboration with others, over "millions of generations."

From "our forefather Adam" to the present day, Bazdeev claims, the "temple" of human knowledge is "being built." Further developing the metaphor, he notes that this temple will be a "worthy dwelling place for the great God" eventually, after humans have made enough progress in their learning. Here, Bazdeev's closely related metaphors, which draw from building and from building materials such as stone, suggest that no one person can gain a full understanding of divinity on their own, just as no one person can build an entire cathedral. These metaphors are particularly appropriate given that the freemasons began as a medieval guild for masons, or builders who work with stone. Notably, too, Solomon's Temple in ancient Jerusalem is a central metaphor for the freemasons, and that's likely what Bazdeev is alluding to here.

After working with the freemasons loyally for a year, Pierre begins to feel that "the ground of Masonry, on which he stood, was now giving way." In fact, the foundation weakens "all the more" when he tries to "stand on it" firmly. Further, he notes that he feels increasingly "bound" to this shaky foundation the more it weakens, feeling like a "man who trustingly sets foot on the smooth surface of a swamp." These various metaphors all draw from the language of masonry. Just as a building can only be securely built upon a stable foundation, Pierre now feels that he made a mistake in attempting to work through his own problems on the weak intellectual "foundation" of freemasonry. 

Tolstoy takes aim at historians who believe that the choices of individual people such as Napoleon determine the shape of history, an attitude often referred to as the "Great Man Theory." Napoleon, he insists, gives instructions "only because he thought an order was expected of him." In other words, Napoleon is attempting to act in a manner he believes people expect, allowing others to, in a sense, control his actions. When he attempts to carry out his role as a "great" leader and heroic liberator, he demeans his own humanity and is "transferred to an artificial world of phantoms." Through this metaphor, Tolstoy suggests that Napoleon has given up on reality, where human life has value, and instead acts as if he is already a figure in a history book, making choices that will be evaluated by historians for their efficacy. 

In a related simile, Tolstoy writes that Napoleon behaves "as a horse walking about a slanted treadmill imagines it is doing something useful for itself." Just as the horse in this simile is not making meaningful progress but merely looks as though it is making progress, Napoleon has no sense of the true value or worth of his actions. He is, for Tolstoy, not a great man who shapes the world, but rather a mere instrument of history. 

Though the city has not been wholly abandoned, only a small percentage of its original population remains. Most have fled to other areas of Russia in order to avoid Napoleon's troops, which are advancing through Russia. Here, Tolstoy employs an elaborate metaphor, characterizing the city as a "queenless beehive" that might appear "alive" at a "superficial glance" but no longer contains "any life." Alongside the bulk of the local population, Moscow's leadership has fled, leaving the city in a strange, suspended state. Those who remain in the city, Tolstoy suggests, continue to go about their daily lives, but their actions are merely hollow and habitual under these ominous conditions.  

In the final chapters of War and Peace, Tolstoy argues against the perception of Napoleon as a great man who shaped European history to his own will. Instead, he characterizes Napoleon as a figure who was swept along by chance. Both his victories and his failures, Tolstoy suggests, were the result of complex factors beyond his control. Emphasizing Napoleon's own lack of agency, Tolstoy describes him metaphorically as an "actor" who merely performed his role. In his exile, he is like any other actor who takes off his costume before exiting the stage, exposing himself as an ordinary man rather than a god or a hero. Further extending this metaphor, Tolstoy imagines a "stage manager" who gleefully exposes the artifice of this historical drama. Tolstoy's metaphor, then, presents a deeply cynical view of Napoleon and the destructive Napoleonic Wars. 

During their adolescence, Nikolai vowed to marry Sonya after returning from the war. However, this engagement is strongly opposed by Nikolai's mother, Countess Rostov, as Sonya is a second cousin to Nikolai and has no money of her own. In her speech, Natasha emphasizes the difficulty of Sonya's position as a poor relation with little prospect of marriage. Sonya, she states, is "a sterile blossom." Through this metaphor, Natasha suggests that Sonya is beautiful, like a flower, but is nevertheless unlikely to get married or have children as a result of her financial circumstances. Accepting Natasha's comparison, Marya notes that Sonya seems "reconciled with her destiny as a sterile blossom" and does not suffer greatly from her apparent ineligibility for marriage. 

At the house at Bald Hills, home of Pierre and Natasha in 1812, various different classes of people coexist peacefully but operate in different spaces. The servants, for example, attend to the daily chores, and the governesses and children likewise occupy a separate sphere within the home. Tolstoy likens these different groups, who live together but only occasionally interact, to "totally different worlds" that are distinct but nevertheless affect each other. Together, he notes, they constitute "one harmonious whole," suggesting that the household operates smoothly despite occasional tensions and arguments. Further, whenever there is some change in the house, it "equally" affects "these worlds," whether "joyfully or sadly," underscoring their interdependence.