In War and Peace, Pierre displays Tolstoy's ideals of passivity, humility, and passion. However, Pierre also succumbs to self-centered obstinacy. He uses highly artificial occult numerology and calculates the value of almost every possible interpretation of his name until he reaches L'russe Besuhof, which, when added together, produces the number "666". Pierre concludes that this coincides with the numerological value of Napoleon's name and, in an outrageous stretch of logic, decides that he has a divine mission to alter history by assassinating Napoleon. By subscribing to the belief that Napoleon is the sole demonic cause behind the destruction of Europe and that he himself is the man destined to change the course of events for the salvation of Russia and Europe, Pierre succumbs to the myth of the Great Man who Tolstoy opposes it so fervently. Despite this shift from passivity to aggressive stubbornness, Pierre is simply incapable of maintaining such a false mindset without wavering and ultimately abandoning it. Tolstoy shows us that Pierre's passion constantly pierces his rational plan. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Although Pierre uses every part of his rational powers to reach his apocalyptic conclusion and to plan his mission, when viewed in its totality, completely irrational. He uses logic illogically, repeatedly changing his name and the letters of his name until he provides the answer he was unconsciously looking for. During the planning, Pierre examines everything "in great detail" (1079), but he misses the fact that his gun is unloaded and too conspicuous. Therefore, at the last minute, he has to hastily and awkwardly revise his plan. Pierre also does not notice the logical inconsistencies of his life philosophy and mission. When he experiences a "vague sense of his own insignificance" (1077), in the next sentence his passivity transforms into a desire for action as he begins to entertain the idea of ​​taking part in the defense of Moscow in the belief that he can actually alter a series of events which are beyond his control. He also says that passion drives him to his mission, which is the "Russian contempt for everything conventional, artificial and human", which causes "the drunk to break mirrors and glass for no apparent reason, even if he knows that It will cost him dearly." give him all he possesses, the feeling which leads man to commit actions which (from the ordinary point of view) are insane, testing, so to speak, his sovereignty and his personal power, and testifying to the existence of a higher judgment of life. beyond mere human conditions" (1078-1079). Here the allusion to the drunkard who shatters mirrors and glass at personal expense alludes to Dolokhov, who acts with passion regardless of the consequences. It reflects a personal freedom that does not depend on effect of his actions on the outside world or the outside world's reaction to him. Pierre's mission, however, does not encompass any of these ideals. He does not act with spontaneity, but with deliberate intention, and the value of his actions depends entirely on the he effect they have on the outside world then shows us that, since humans are naturally irrational, human logic is an illusion and is not an adequate tool for deriving logical truth that arises from our passions. People like Pierre rationalize their passions to make them seem based on reason. As a result of the clash between his artificial rationalization and his true nature, Pierre experiences a cognitive dissonance that severely affects his identity.and self-confidence. He experiences this clash when he begins to spend time with the Frenchman Ramballe. His mission requires him to be reserved, isolated, closed. Such a mentality went strongly against his natural disposition of honesty and openness. Because he both has an open heart and now feels the need to hide his intentions, Pierre feels insecure and exposed to others. Only Ramballe, a totally self-centered individual, puts him at ease: "If [Ramballe] had been endowed with the slightest faculty of discerning the feelings of others and had even the faintest idea of ​​his companion's feelings at that moment, Pierre would probably would have left him, but his keen insensitivity to anything other than himself disarmed Pierre" (1084). However, when Pierre asks about Napoleon, Pierre's "face takes on a melancholy and embarrassed expression" (1087). During this conversation, he also "stuttered shyly" and showed a "guilty look" (1087). Pierre's lack of confidence betrays his unconscious moral resistance against his seemingly righteous mission. This dualistic conflict makes him suffer, but Pierre attributes this suffering to cowardice. He is frustrated because his intentions "were dissipated like dust by contact with the first man he met" (1088). This contact with another person unconsciously reminds Pierre of his humanity, a humanity that he confuses with weakness. This humanity makes the idea that Pierre could actually kill another human being impossible. At this point, Pierre's self-image is already invested in the completion of his mission, regardless of whether it turns out to be a success or a failure. The fact that he has already escaped from home and procured a peasant's coat and a gun commits him to his plans; he would feel ridiculous if he abandoned his mission after having already invested so much in it. When the time comes to carry out his plot, Pierre has already lost his enthusiasm while his strategy appears increasingly imperfect and inadequate. “But since Pierre's main aim seemed to consist not so much in carrying out his project, but in proving to himself that he would not give it up and that he was doing everything possible to carry it out” (1105). Pierre's identity crisis is evident in his attempt to hide his name. Speaking to Ramballe, "Peter, after blushing and trying to invent a name, replied that he could not tell him who he was, and was about to speak of his reasons for concealing his identity when the Frenchman interrupted him" (1085). Afterwards, he reveals his name and rank to Ramballe. His blushing indicates a lack of confidence that prevents him from lying or withholding information. When Pierre is confident, he can lie effortlessly. After Pierre saves a little girl from a fire and another woman from sexual molestation, Pierre firmly hides his name from the French soldiers and lies to them that the little girl he saved is his daughter. This change represents a process in which his confidence is renewed and strengthened by passion. This change begins at the sight of the fire burning in Moscow, when "he feels freed from the ideas that weighed him down" (1109). . The fire crisis shifts his original mission and gives him a more compelling sense of purpose. Pierre's subconscious knows that saving the little girl from the fire is a noble act while killing Napoleon is not. This change of purpose gives Pierre a more solid foundation on which to act, so his self-confidence expands accordingly. Such cases, in which Pierre's natural compassion breaks through, occur throughout the entire assassination attempt. When the French arrived, he had planned to be crafty and hide, but "an invincible curiosity kept him there" (1081). Pierre takes too much interest in theothers to exclude them, in clear opposition to the egocentric Ramballe. Later, when Ramballe meets a German hussar, it is Pierre who understands both men's languages ​​and must help them communicate. The Frenchman is closed in himself, while Pierre is expansive and naturally perceives everyone around him. While trying to carry out his plan, Pierrecontinues to "forget". The narrator says, “Forgetting his intention to hide his knowledge of French, Pierre… exclaimed in French, 'Aren't you hurt?'” and “'Oh, I'm really desperate about what has happened,' said Pierre quickly , completely forgetting the part he intended to play" (1082). Pierre's distraction, although a social vice, is a moral virtue. Just as he keeps forgetting the superficial social conventions he must follow in social settings, he also forgets the details of his unholy plan out of his genuine concern. When he actually goes to the city to kill Napoleon, he is involuntarily distracted by the anguish of a little girl caught in a fire and a lady molested by a French soldier. Pierre's carefully laid out plan suffers multiple breakdowns due to involuntary outbursts of compassion towards those who are not connected to his plan, but towards whom he is nevertheless very attentive. Tolstoy compares Pierre's suspension of his passive, compassionate self to sleep, a dream, and drunkenness. and madness. Pierre, for much of this episode, acts as if he were in a trance: "He neither heard nor saw anything around him" (1106). “Everything he saw or heard around him seemed to take place in a dream.” He is in the midst of a "reverie", a daydream (1077). He compares the concept of his divine mission to "dreams" (1078). Furthermore, “Pierre was in a state bordering on madness” (1077) and was in “a state of nervous irritability bordering on madness” (1079). The narrator's description of Pierre makes Pierre seem like a drunken man: when Pierre "remember[ed] his intention, he felt dizzy and felt so weak that he leaned on the fence to avoid falling" and with "unsteady steps. .. he lay down on the sofa and fell asleep immediately" (1092-1093). Therefore, Pierre's destructive intentions intoxicate him and cloud his common sensibility. Figuratively, "Pierre was as if drunk" (1114). Pierre's servant Makar Alekseyevich acts as a doppelganger for Pierre as Makar, who is actually physically drunk, is mad with a delusion of killing Napoleon. "Pierre... looked with pity and revulsion at the half-mad old man. Makar Alekseyevich, frowning with effort, held his pistol and shouted in his hoarse voice, evidently imagining a heroic scene" (1080) [emphasis added] . Of Makar, Pierre says, "He is a madman, an unfortunate creature who did not know what he was doing" (1082), but Pierre does not consciously recognize his own reflection in Makar. The quality that sleep, dreams and drunkenness are all evidence of is that they wear out over time. Likewise, his mother's crying among the burning houses causes Pierre to suddenly return to his natural being, "as if awakening from a dream." While Pierre was previously in a listless trance, he is suddenly filled with "breathless alacrity" and feels "as if he had suddenly come back to life after a deep swoon" (1108). Pierre's obsession with altering history and saving Russia is only a temporary condition, from which he inevitably awakens. This change restores Pierre's confidence, which was wavering due to the mental conflict created by his mission. “he held his head higher… [and walked] with rapid steps” (1108) and “walked away triumphantly among the French soldiers” (1114). Pierre's righteous act of saving the oriental ladyhe intensifies it and "his strength is increased tenfold" (1113). This leads to a more negative aspect of Pierre's passion, namely his tendency to exaggerate. After saving the girl, Pierre confidently and stubbornly lies openly to the soldiers, calling the girl "my little daughter, whom I have just saved from the flames" (1114), thus giving his actions a more noble, personal and melodramatic flavor. . Pierre's tendency to excess is what led him to excesses of hedonism with wine and women, and then to an excess of exaggerated spirituality with Freemasonry. When Ramballe describes his similarly exaggerated love affairs, which "consisted mainly in an unnatural intercourse with the woman, and in a combination of outrageous circumstances imparting the main charm of the feeling" (1090), Pierre is very attracted to this perverse conception, artificial and overly dramatized love story. Ramballe's description of love is artificially and unnaturally altered from its true nature, but it has such an effect on Pierre that he is suddenly filled with passion and begins to exaggerate about his relationship with Natasha. Pierre remembers and reconstructs his last meeting with Natasha: "At the time the meeting had not made a deep impression on him, he had not even thought about it since then. But now it seemed to him that there had been something very poetic and significant in the 'encounter' (1091). During that conversation, Ramballe expounds ideas that have many parallels to Pierre's illusory mission. Just as Ramballe places importance on "a combination of outrageous circumstances" (1090), Pierre places importance on the numerology of his name and the coincidence that he is still in Moscow when Napoleon arrives. Pierre echoes Ramballe's attraction to something "unnatural" with his own attraction to the "alien and fantastic" qualities of his assassination plot. They also mirror each other in their farcical rehearsal of melodramatic phrases; Pierre with "Not I but the hand of Providence punishes you" (1079) and Ramballe with "I saved your life, and now I save your honor!" (1091). The two men experience fervent but perverse passions. Overall, Tolstoy presents an ambiguous view of Pierre's passion. Ramballe's perverse passion prompts Pierre to provide a somewhat embellished account of his life story. However, this tainted dialogue with the self-centered Frenchman ultimately purifies Pierre. After the conversation with Ramballe, Pierre "felt a joyful and tender emotion" (1092) and describes the sky, which is associated with the divine experience of truth during War and Peace. Later, when Pierre saves the little girl out of his natural compassion, he is "seized by a sense of horror and revulsion... But he tried not to throw the little girl down" (1110). In this case he uses reason against the stimuli of his passion, which pushed him to commit the immoral act of throwing the child away. Furthermore, although Pierre naturally leans towards goodness in the midst of the tribulations caused by the Moscow fires, Tolstoy paints all the characters around him in a negative light. There is the cowardice and selfishness of the father who does not want to save his daughter, the false concern of the servant for the trapped little girl and the looting of the French soldiers. The French looter explains, “He must be human, we are all mortal, you know” (1110). Therefore, Tolstoy in no way says that passion is unambiguously good or that man's true nature is good. It does not give us a conclusive verdict on passion, reason, or human nature. Tolstoy, however, shows a cautious preference for passion over reason. It is Pierre's willful rationalization, along with the deductions of Napoleon and other important characters in the book, that lead to futile and isolated selfishness. Because Pierre recognizes..1968