가족 연대기로서의 톨스토이 『전쟁과 평화』 = Tolstoy’s War and Peace as a Family Chronicle

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Family is one of the key themes in Tolstoy’s literature.
The so-called ‘family novel,’ which consists of and begins
from the trilogy of Chillhood, Boyhood, and Youth, through
Family’s Happiness, develops well into War and Peace, and
lastly reaches its peak in Anna Karenina.
Throughout War and Peace Tolstoy explores his own ide
a of a family from the three different gentry classes. All o
f these families and their members altogether go through t
he three basic elements such as life, love and war, and th
ey are depicted not as alienated, but as amalgamated clos
ely each other.
The first family of Kuragin symbolizes the degraded fami
ly. Leading a false life, the family pays always attention to
the materials, not spiritual ones. The writer shows his dis
gusting feeling toward the Kuragin family. For Tolstoy, all
of Kuragin family members represent the world of corrupti
on and filthiness, both of which are nothing but just the d
arkness of the upper society.
Rostov family, the second type of Tolstoyan model, pres
ents itself as goodness, sincerity, and sympathy toward th
e others, unlike the first one. This type is far from the Ku
ragin family; the Rostovs love and respect each other; and
they keep always their conscience, not losing the so-calle
d responsibility. It is the Rostov family that enabled the w
riter to idealize his own best idea of a family. For this rig
ht reason, Russian patriots could be able to originate from
this family.
Tolsoy’s third model pivots around Volkonsky family; a
mood of rigidity is powering over this family. Volkonskys,
father and son are distinguished from others for their exc
eptional talent, loftiness, and unprecedented mind-set of th
eir class, to which they belong. Though he experiences sp
iritual rebirth through his own repentance, the protagonist,
Andrey Volkonsky does not have family happiness because
of his death.
Happiness, the ideal goal which this novel essentially att
empts to show, is described to pass to different character
s: Pierre and Natasha and Nicholas and Maria who are the
symbolic representation of warm spirit and holiness. Throu
gh these characters, Tolstoy seems to deliver not only his
theme of family and family happiness but also the fact that
the valuable human beings would be able to be educated o
nly from this kind of harmonious family.