War in Leo Tolstoy's Literature and War and Peace

L. 톨스토이 문학에 나타난 전쟁 - 장편소설 『전쟁과 평화』를 중심으로 -

Cyclical stories on Caucasus and Sebastopol Sketches, including War and Peace, have generally been said as masterpieces dealing with the theme of war in Leo Tolstoy's literature. Among them, it is no doubt that War and Peace is absolutely the best one describing the grand panorama of people's lives and war itself. The plot of this novel consists of the so-called Napoleonic War of 1812 and of diverse lives both from the upper class and lower class, more essentially it dramatically presents how these pictures made all literary participants experienced their destiny and lives. Throughout these texts, war, including of its cause and effects and participants, re-considers and re-evaluates all of each features. The most important themes in War and Peace is war itself as the novel's title says. Rather than a just backdrop to the novel, the war plays a significant role in providing the reader with various realistic, philosophic, moral and existentialist perspectives. Moreover, War and Peace for the writer shows contradictory two views about war; he severally criticizes the Napoleonic war of 1812 in the sense that it violets people's reason and nature. At the same time, however, Tolstoy considers that the war as liberation is justified and necessary for guarding people's nation, otechestvo in Russian. What the writer attempts to show from this novel, however, goes beyond the simple descriptions which were done above. Leo Tolstoy successfully offers and what he tries to show in the long run is that how people go through all kinds of sufferings and hardship and their spiritual resurrection, thereby leading to the vital force making history. For the writer, the essential force that makes history and people's lives is not heroic military leader like Napoleon, but those common people. And the novel serves a wonderful prelude expecting the Decembrist revolt in 1825, because all of the vital and active streams that Tolstoy emphasizes turn out true in Russian history.