War and Peace Literary Devices

Explanation and Analysis—Spinning Mill:

Anna Pavlovna, maid of honor to the mother of the Emperor, is a well-respected member of aristocratic society in St. Petersburg. In his depiction of one of her soirees, which demonstrates her capability as a high society host, Tolstoy use a metaphor and simile drawn from the language of industrialization and machinery:

As the owner of a spinning mill, having put his workers in their places, strolls about the establishment, watching out for an idle spindle or the odd one squealing much too loudly, and hastens to go and slow it down or start it up at the proper speed—so Anna Pavlovna strolled about her drawing room, going up to a circle that had fallen silent or was too talkative, and with one word or rearrangement set the conversation machine running evenly and properly again.

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."

Explanation and Analysis—Like a Leper:

Tolstoy uses a simile that compares Pierre to a "dead man" and a "leper" in a scene in which Pierre returns to the home of his dying father, Count Bezukhov. There, Pierre is met with a frosty reception from the three princesses who have attended to the Count in his final days:

The eldest, a neat, long-waisted, stern young lady, the one who had come out to Anna Mikhailovna, was reading; the younger ones, both red-cheeked and pretty, differing from each other only in that one had a mole above her lip, which was very becoming to her, were doing embroidery. Pierre was met like a dead man or a leper. The eldest princess interrupted her reading and silently stared at him with frightened eyes; the younger one, without the mole, assumed exactly the same expression; the youngest, with the mole, of a merry, laughter-prone character [...]

The three princesses, who are sisters, treat Pierre "like a dead man or a leper." Through this simile, Tolstoy underscores the hostility with which Pierre is met in his father's home. These three young women regard Pierre as a threat to the portion of the Count's fortune that they hope to inherit. Though he is only the illegitimate son of the Count, the Count has no other children, and Pierre is therefore in line to inherit the entirety of the Count's fortune, explaining the unfriendly reception by the princesses. Pierre, however, knows little about the competition for the Count's money and is confused by the barely-concealed bitterness of the princesses and Prince Vassily, who scheme unsuccessfully to claim the fortune.

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Explanation and Analysis—The Buzzing of a Fly:

After the climactic Battle of Austerlitz, Prince Andrei lies wounded below the hill at Pratz when he hears the voice of Napoleon Bonaparte. In a famous passage, Tolstoy uses a simile that compares Napoleon's words to "the buzzing of a fly":

Prince Andrei understood that it had been said about him, and that it was Napoleon speaking [...] But he heard these words as if he was hearing the buzzing of a fly. He not only was not interested, he did not even notice, and at once forgot them. He had a burning in his head; he felt that he was losing blood, and he saw above him that distant, lofty, and eternal sky. He knew that it was Napoleon—his hero—but at that moment, Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant man [...]

Previously, Prince Andrei regarded Napoleon as a personal hero despite the fact that, militarily speaking, Napoleon is his enemy. Despite his loyalty to Russia, he idolized the French ruler for his apparent brilliance in battle and the glory of his many victories. Now, however, Prince Andrei has been profoundly changed by his experiences in war. After staring down the possibility of his own death and gazing into the endless sky, war now seems to him a sad and hollow endeavor. Now, he hears the words of the man he once regarded with awe "as if he was hearing the buzzing of a fly." Napoleon, he realizes at this critical moment, is just a man, driven by the same petty goals and motivations as any other. Through this simile, then, Tolstoy underscores Prince Andrei's absolute disillusionment with war.

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Explanation and Analysis—Like a Child:

Prince Andrei's first return from the war is marked by the death of his wife, Princess Lise, who dies giving birth to their son, Nikolai ("Nikolushka"), who survives. To describe the elder Prince Nikolai's reaction to all this, Tolstoy uses a simile that compares Prince Nikolai, in his distraught state, to a child as he seeks comfort from his own son, Prince Andrei.

Two hours after that, Prince Andrei went into his father’s study with quiet steps. The old man already knew everything. He was standing just by the door, and as soon as it opened, the old man silently embraced his son’s neck with his old, tough arms, as in a vise, and burst into sobs like a child.

It's important to note that before Prince Andrei's return, Prince Nikolai believed his son to have died at the Battle of Austerlitz and grieved this loss keenly even though he didn't speak of it openly. In this passage, following the death of Princess Lise in childbirth and the survival of his new grandson Nikolushka, Prince Nikolai embraces his son Andrei as if returned from the dead and weeps "like a child" over all that has just happened. The simile captures the unrestrained nature of the old Prince's tears, which is understandable given the sudden, unexpected reversal of his grief for Andrei and the simultaneous loss of Lise and birth of the baby.

The simile is also striking in that Prince Nikolai is depicted as having a difficult and demanding personality and is, to say the least, not inclined to cry in front of others. The uncharacteristic vulnerability of his tears clashes with his harsh personality, conveying the overpowering, mixed emotions of this moment in the story.

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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.

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Explanation and Analysis—Like a Game of Chess:

When Prince Andrei and Pierre meet briefly before the French troops advance upon Moscow, Pierre uses a simile that compares war to "a game of chess":

“However,” he said, “they do say that war is like a game of chess.”

“Yes,” said Prince Andrei, “only with this small difference, that in chess you can think over each move as long as you like, you’re outside the conditions of time, and with this difference, too, that a knight is always stronger than a pawn, and two pawns are always stronger than one, while in war one battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes weaker than a company. Nobody can know the relative strength of the troops."

Pierre, who has no direct experience in war or combat, imagines the battleground as an orderly space in which careful strategy plays a decisive role. "They say," he claims, "that war is like a game of chess." Prince Andrei, however, swiftly rejects the comparison. He is now a veteran of several bloody battles, and he regards his former friend with a clear sense of condescension and scorn. "In chess," he argues, "you can think over each move as long as you like," and the strength of various chess pieces is established in advance. In real combat, he claims, "nobody can know the relative strength of the troops," and time serves as a constraint on planning. Through this exchange, and Andre's rejection of Pierre's simile, the novel suggests that careful planning and strategy play a relatively minor role in warfare due to its unpredictability. This corresponds to the novel's broader treatment of war as chaotic and beyond control.

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Explanation and Analysis—World of Phantoms:

In one of many sections of the novel where Tolstoy pauses the primary narratives in order to reflect upon the nature of history, he uses both simile and metaphor in a withering critique of French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he characterizes as occupying an "artificial world of phantoms of some sort of greatness":

And even without his order they were doing what he wanted, and he gave the instruction only because he thought an order was expected of him. And again he was transferred to his former artificial world of phantoms of some sort of greatness, and again (as a horse walking about a slanting treadmill imagines it is doing something for itself), he began to obediently fulfill that cruel, sad, oppressive, and inhuman role which had been assigned to him.

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.

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Explanation and Analysis—Like a Stone:

While held as a prisoner of war by the French army, Pierre meets a humble man named Platon Karataev. Tolstoy characterizes Karataev with a series of similes that emphasize his connection to nature:

He had only to lie down in order to fall asleep at once like a stone, and he had only to shake himself in order to set about doing something at once, without a second’s delay, the way children, on getting up, take their toys [...] He sang songs not as singers do who know they are being listened to, but as birds do, apparently because it was necessary for him to utter those sounds, as it is necessary to stretch one’s arms or legs; and those sounds were always high, tender, almost feminine, mournful [...]

While Pierre experiences restlessness in his cell, Karataev is able to "fall asleep at once like a stone." Through this simile, Tolstoy contrasts Karataev with the many aristocratic characters in the novel who live busy and privileged lives but find little spiritual satisfaction or inner peace. Further, Karataev sings "as birds do," in the manner of a person simply stretching their muscles. Karataev, then, has a close relationship to the natural world. Instead of scheming and over-thinking, he is responsive to the needs of his own body and relies on his own instinct. In the novel, Karataev serves as a model for a more natural mode of life that Tolstoy associates with the Russian peasantry.

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Explanation and Analysis—One Blow After Another:

In the Epilogue, Tolstoy uses a simile that describes the various misfortunes suffered by the Rostov family as affecting Count Rostov "like one blow after another":

Count Ilya Andreevich died that same year, and, as always happens, with his death the old family broke up. The events of the past year—the Moscow fire and the flight from it, the death of Prince Andrei and Natasha’s despair, the death of Petya, the countess’s grief—all this, like one blow after another, fell on the old count’s head. It seemed he did not understand and felt unable to understand the significance of all these events, and morally bowed his old head, as if expecting and asking for new blows that would finish him off.

Count Rostov dies shortly after the wedding of his daughter Natasha to Pierre. Though the wedding was a happy event for the family, it followed a series of tragedies that profoundly affected the Count, including the loss of property in the Moscow fire and the deaths of both Prince Andrei and the Count's youngest son, Petya. These events, Tolstoy writes, fell upon the head of the Count "like one blow after another." Defeated by the combined effect of these misfortunes, he "morally bowed his old head" in anticipation of "new blows that would finish him off." Through this simile, Tolstoy suggests that these family tragedies affected the Count with an almost physical force, bringing great sorrow to him in his final days and withering his will to live.

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War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace: Similes 9 key examples