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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Volume 1, Part 1: Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Christian Love:
One prominent motif in War and Peace is "Christian love," or a universal love that is not directed at one individual, but rather upon all of humanity. This motif is first introduced through the character of Marya Bolkonsky. In a letter to her friend Julie Karagin, Marya dismisses romantic love in favor of "Christian love":
I understand these feelings in others and if I cannot approve of them, never having felt them, I do not condemn them. It only seems to me that Christian love, the love of one’s neighbor, the love for one’s enemies, is more meritorious, sweeter, and more beautiful than are the feelings that the beautiful eyes of a young man can inspire in a poetical and loving young girl like you.
Though Marya secretly nurses a powerful desire to get married, here she compares the love that "the beautiful eyes of a young man can inspire" in a young woman to "that Christian love, the love of one's neighbor." In her letter, the pious Marya suggests that this more universal form of love is "more beautiful" than romantic love, which is directed at one person.
For much of the novel, Marya's brother, Prince Andrei, struggles to understand his sister's religious perspective and regards her as naïve. After his experiences in the bloody Battle of Borodino, however, a fatally wounded Prince Andrei has a spiritual revelation and begins to feel a universal love for others:
In those hours of suffering solitude and half delirium that he spent after being wounded, the more he pondered the new principle of eternal love revealed to him, the more, though without feeling it himself, he renounced earthly life. To love everything, everybody, always to sacrifice oneself for love, meant to love no one, meant not to live this earthly life.
On the battlefield, Prince Andrei feels that he can no longer determine friend from foe and instead feels a profound love for everyone around him, including his former enemy, Anatole Kuragin. In the final days of his life, his contemplation of the "eternal love" that he feels for "everything" and "everybody" helps him to prepare himself for death. In the novel, "Christian love" serves as an ideal that proves elusive in the bustle of daily life, and Prince Andrei is able to truly "love his neighbor" only as he prepares for his own death.
Related Themes:
Volume 1, Part 2: Chapters 4–8
Explanation and Analysis—Death and the Sky:
The act of looking up at the sky serves as a notable motif in several key scenes of battle in the novel. When Nikolai Rostov, for example, gets his first taste of combat in an early skirmish with the French near the Austrian town of Emms, he enters into a daze-like state and contemplates the beauty of the sun and the sky:
Nikolai Rostov turned away, and, as if searching for something, began looking at the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun! How good the sky seemed, how blue, calm, and deep! How bright and solemn the setting sun! How tenderly and lustrously glistened the waters of the distant Danube! And better still were the distant blue hills beyond the Danube, the convent, the mysterious gorges, the pine forests bathed in mist to their tops … there was peace, happiness …
In this famous passage, Nikolai realizes, in the face of death, that his desire to survive is stronger than his desire for glory in war. As the battle rages around him, he looks to the distance, staring at the "waters of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun!" For the first time, he fully appreciates the beauty of the natural world, which he associates with "peace" and "happiness" and which offers a stark contrast to the violence and terror of war. While he had once expected to fight valiantly against the French in face-to-face combat, in the chaos of the scene, in which many soldiers are shot down by distant artillerymen, Nikolai loses his nerve and becomes distracted, absorbed by the beauty of the natural world.
In a similar scene, Prince Andrei contemplates the sky after being struck on the head by a French soldier while running through a forest to assist the Russian artillerists. Earlier, Prince Andrei, like Nikolai, sought glory in battle, and he had his first taste of heroism while assisting General Kutuzov. Now, however, he looks up at the sky as he drifts out of consciousness:
There was nothing over him now except the sky—the lofty sky, not clear, but still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds slowly creeping across it. “How quiet, calm, and solemn, not at all like when I was running,” thought Prince Andrei, “not like when we were running, shouting, and fighting; not at all like when the Frenchman and the artillerist, with angry and frightened faces, were pulling at the swab—it’s quite different the way the clouds creep across this lofty, infinite sky. How is it I haven’t seen this lofty sky before?"
Looking up at the sky, he notes how "quiet, calm, and solemn" he now feels and wonders how he had never fully appreciated "this lofty sky before." Suddenly, his achievements in battle seem minor and insignificant in the face of the vastness of the "infinite sky" and the possibility of his own death. Through this motif, Tolstoy suggests that glory, personal heroism, and the project of war are all ultimately meaningless. Confronting the possibility of death, both Nikolai and Andrei realize that what they truly desire is to live.
Related Themes:
Volume 1, Part 3: Chapters 14–19
Explanation and Analysis—Death and the Sky:
The act of looking up at the sky serves as a notable motif in several key scenes of battle in the novel. When Nikolai Rostov, for example, gets his first taste of combat in an early skirmish with the French near the Austrian town of Emms, he enters into a daze-like state and contemplates the beauty of the sun and the sky:
Nikolai Rostov turned away, and, as if searching for something, began looking at the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun! How good the sky seemed, how blue, calm, and deep! How bright and solemn the setting sun! How tenderly and lustrously glistened the waters of the distant Danube! And better still were the distant blue hills beyond the Danube, the convent, the mysterious gorges, the pine forests bathed in mist to their tops … there was peace, happiness …
In this famous passage, Nikolai realizes, in the face of death, that his desire to survive is stronger than his desire for glory in war. As the battle rages around him, he looks to the distance, staring at the "waters of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun!" For the first time, he fully appreciates the beauty of the natural world, which he associates with "peace" and "happiness" and which offers a stark contrast to the violence and terror of war. While he had once expected to fight valiantly against the French in face-to-face combat, in the chaos of the scene, in which many soldiers are shot down by distant artillerymen, Nikolai loses his nerve and becomes distracted, absorbed by the beauty of the natural world.
In a similar scene, Prince Andrei contemplates the sky after being struck on the head by a French soldier while running through a forest to assist the Russian artillerists. Earlier, Prince Andrei, like Nikolai, sought glory in battle, and he had his first taste of heroism while assisting General Kutuzov. Now, however, he looks up at the sky as he drifts out of consciousness:
There was nothing over him now except the sky—the lofty sky, not clear, but still immeasurably lofty, with gray clouds slowly creeping across it. “How quiet, calm, and solemn, not at all like when I was running,” thought Prince Andrei, “not like when we were running, shouting, and fighting; not at all like when the Frenchman and the artillerist, with angry and frightened faces, were pulling at the swab—it’s quite different the way the clouds creep across this lofty, infinite sky. How is it I haven’t seen this lofty sky before?"
Looking up at the sky, he notes how "quiet, calm, and solemn" he now feels and wonders how he had never fully appreciated "this lofty sky before." Suddenly, his achievements in battle seem minor and insignificant in the face of the vastness of the "infinite sky" and the possibility of his own death. Through this motif, Tolstoy suggests that glory, personal heroism, and the project of war are all ultimately meaningless. Confronting the possibility of death, both Nikolai and Andrei realize that what they truly desire is to live.
Related Themes:
Volume 4, Part 1: Chapters 14–16
Explanation and Analysis—Christian Love:
One prominent motif in War and Peace is "Christian love," or a universal love that is not directed at one individual, but rather upon all of humanity. This motif is first introduced through the character of Marya Bolkonsky. In a letter to her friend Julie Karagin, Marya dismisses romantic love in favor of "Christian love":
I understand these feelings in others and if I cannot approve of them, never having felt them, I do not condemn them. It only seems to me that Christian love, the love of one’s neighbor, the love for one’s enemies, is more meritorious, sweeter, and more beautiful than are the feelings that the beautiful eyes of a young man can inspire in a poetical and loving young girl like you.
Though Marya secretly nurses a powerful desire to get married, here she compares the love that "the beautiful eyes of a young man can inspire" in a young woman to "that Christian love, the love of one's neighbor." In her letter, the pious Marya suggests that this more universal form of love is "more beautiful" than romantic love, which is directed at one person.
For much of the novel, Marya's brother, Prince Andrei, struggles to understand his sister's religious perspective and regards her as naïve. After his experiences in the bloody Battle of Borodino, however, a fatally wounded Prince Andrei has a spiritual revelation and begins to feel a universal love for others:
In those hours of suffering solitude and half delirium that he spent after being wounded, the more he pondered the new principle of eternal love revealed to him, the more, though without feeling it himself, he renounced earthly life. To love everything, everybody, always to sacrifice oneself for love, meant to love no one, meant not to live this earthly life.
On the battlefield, Prince Andrei feels that he can no longer determine friend from foe and instead feels a profound love for everyone around him, including his former enemy, Anatole Kuragin. In the final days of his life, his contemplation of the "eternal love" that he feels for "everything" and "everybody" helps him to prepare himself for death. In the novel, "Christian love" serves as an ideal that proves elusive in the bustle of daily life, and Prince Andrei is able to truly "love his neighbor" only as he prepares for his own death.
Related Themes:
