War and Peace Summary and Analysis | Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace is a treatise on the universal nature of the human experience. It's a Homeric epic of massive proportion that explores the greatest contrasts of humanity. Or more simply stated, it's a roughly 600,000 word answer to the question of what is the meaning to life? And now in this video, I'm going to argue that War and Peace is a dramatization of the human spirit's capacity to overcome and redeem the unbearable sufferings of life. And now here's the roadmap that we're going to take to get to that spot. One, we're going to understand Tolstoy's philosophy. Two, we will relate said philosophy to War and Peace. And three, we're going to extract the truths embedded within the story. So on to part one, Tolstoy's philosophy. Tolstoy, at the time of writing War and Peace, would have likely considered himself a pacifist and an anarchist. And this would have happened because he was traumatized by his time serving in the Crimean War. And he was also further traumatized when he later witnessed a public execution. Said trauma essentially led him to denouncing all forms of violence and statehood. And that would have been Tolstoy's worldview. But at the time of writing War and Peace, he would have considered himself an existentialist. And thus we see that Tolstoy actually had many of the same problems that modern man has today. Since Tolstoy believed there was no life after death, he struggled with a sense of nihilism, of struggling to find meaning in his life, believing that there was no true meaning to be found, period. Hence, War and Peace asks the question, what is the meaning to life? How do we make meaning of a seemingly meaningless life filled to the brim with suffering? And Tolstoy's answer to this question in short is going to be truth. And that's because that while Tolstoy himself wasn't a formal philosopher, he did rightly believe that art was a vehicle to bringing truth. And this is crucial because artistic mediums convey truth, truths about the human experience that more formal, logical, rational arguments cannot do. And Tolstoy was such a huge advocate of pursuing truth because he believed that the truth set us free. And you can discern this from an entry in his diary around the year 1897, in which he stated, the basis of life is freedom and awareness. The freedom to be aware. So for Tolstoy, one needs awareness in order to truly be free. But awareness of what, you may ask? Truth. One needs to be aware of truth. Being aware of the truths of the human condition brings freedom. Now this helps us make War and Peace much more understandable. Tolstoy ultimately set out to write a novel that would dramatize the human experience to help us bring awareness to the truths of the human experience. Because the truth sets us free, and freedom redeems the sufferings of a seemingly meaningless life. Now let's go ahead and discuss War and Peace. While there is no singular video that could properly divest the full scope and source material of War and Peace, this video is going to focus on the broader themes of the novel. And there's particularly going to be three crucial themes that we are going to explore here. These themes are number one, lack of free will. Number two, the delusions of solipsism. And number three, the fruits of spiritual suffering. To address Tolstoy's views on free will, he was pretty similar to a fatalist, one might argue. This is because Tolstoy believed there was a certain dichotomy to the human experience, such that we as humans have control over our inner, our personal, and our spiritual lives, but we ultimately have no control over the externalities of our lives. This is summed up concisely within War and Peace itself. There are two sides to each man's life. His personal life, which is the more free, the more abstract its interests. And his elemental, swarm-like life, where a man inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed for him. Man lives consciously for himself, but serves as an unconscious instrument for the achievement of historical, universally human goals. So yes, we have this paradox in which we do have control over our personal interior lives, yet are ultimately entrapped within the cruxes of fate that control the movements and the shakings of the world at large. While I think the logic of this claim may not be entirely sound, there's still deep wisdom that can be found within such a worldview to begin with. A wisdom that elucidates a certain understanding of the limitations of human nature. And this is that we need to have awareness of that which we can control, and that which we cannot control. We can control our thoughts, actions, and beliefs. We cannot control the world around us. And this awareness is crucial, because the more attention that we place on that which we can control, the less anxious we become, and the more disciplined our character becomes. This now brings us to the second theme of War and Peace. The delusions of solipsism. Solipsism refers to being isolated from humanity. The idea that we cannot empathize or genuinely connect with others. Generally speaking, solipsism is a bad thing. And Tolstoy sought to destroy solipsism. And the way that you destroy solipsism is through empathy. Understanding others' experiences, and recognizing the universalities of humanity that lies within all of us. This is the biblical notion of man being made in the image of God. So now, how does Tolstoy attack solipsism? Well, War and Peace has over 500 characters. It's a very diverse cast. Both socially, politically, culturally, economically, etc. And despite the diversity and the vast differences of these characters, and the vastly unique stories that each of them lives, we ultimately see striking similarities of their human nature at the most intimate aspects of their being. For example, you can consider the characters Andre and Pierre. These are both vastly different types of people. Andre is more of a rugged, masculine man sort of man. While Pierre is much more soft, symbolized, a little bumbling, but well-meaning. And while both of these characters have markedly different personalities, both of them, at different points in the stories, have religious experiences of sorts that are markedly similar. Such that we recognize that even the most different sorts of characters and human beings of the most different walks of life still have the capacity to share the same core experiences at the most intimate levels of being a human. And this phenomena is going to be a constant throughout War and Peace. And literary critic James Wood sort of sums up this pattern perfectly. As he writes, Tolstoy's novel is surely the greatest attempt in the history of the genre to represent and embody the branching infinity of human relations. These highly particular characters essentially share simple, large, universal emotions like joy, shame, love, anger, and fear. And these might easily be transferred from one character to another. So Tolstoy destroys ellipsism by dramatizing the timeless principle that man is made in the image of God. We are all derived from the same source. And it's super important that we grasp this distinction because it is awareness of this truth that cultivates unconditional love. And like I said at the beginning of the video, Tolstoy, as a pacifist, believed that turning the other cheek and embracing unconditional love was the golden principle for humanity. And the way that we love others unconditionally is to recognize the humanity in one another. That each of us has the spark of the divine within us. And this now brings us to our third theme, spiritual suffering. It's easy to say that we should aspire towards unconditional love. It's another thing to actually practice it. And it's hard to practice unconditional love, or any virtue really, because life is hard. And when life is hard, we get tempted. How do we get tempted, you ask? Broadly speaking, in the face of trials, tribulations, and suffering, we get tempted by cynicism to renounce morality and act for selfish self-interest, often to the detriment of others. The logic of this argument is beautifully articulated in the beginning of Plato's The Republic. And it's also beautifully dramatized in the Bible through the Book of Job. Now, the Book of Job is a story of spiritual suffering. In this book, Job is a moral, God-fearing man. And then the devil comes along, and he goes ahead and makes a bet with God. He essentially says, Hey God, Job is only moral because he has a good life. You've given him everything he wanted, of course he's gonna love you. And God's like, Nah, Job loves me for me. In fact, you can go ahead and torture him, devil. And as long as you don't kill him, do whatever you want, and Job is still gonna love me. The devil's like, Bet. And then Job's life becomes a living hell. He understandably begins to hate his existence as he suffers the most terrible agonies imaginable, and also comes to criticize God's sense of justice. But he never does actually renounce his faith. And then the story ends on two kind of key points. One, God first tells Job that, or reminds him, that as a human he has a limited intellect and does not have the capacity of fully comprehending the cosmos and therefore is not capable of being the arbiter of justice over the universe. Number two, God does restore Job to good health and essentially doubles his wealth and resources that he lost for his troubles. Now this story, as jarring as it is, is a story of spiritual suffering. It emphasizes the biblical virtue of long-suffering, of being patient while life is grim. And the truth being espoused through Job is that salvation and human flourishing is founded on joy and faith. That one must maintain their trust and faith in goodness and morality despite the unjust sufferings of life. Funny enough, this is a similar conclusion that Alexander Solzhenitsyn reached in The Gulag Archipelago, in which Solzhenitsyn similarly argued that the truth is what sets you free, and you must have faith in adhering to and supporting the truth, even if it means sacrificing your own life, as only by abiding through truth can you save your soul and also help try to set order to the chaotic and unjust world around us. And this is also why Jesus was considered God made flesh, because he sacrificed his own life in the name of unconditional love for humanity. And it's said that this is the sacrifice that freed humanity of their sins or essentially restored order to the unjust world. And now let's go ahead and tie this back to war and peace. This is a subtler theme, because Tolstoy doesn't bluntly hit us over the head with it. But oddly enough, we find that our characters in war and peace find the greatest sense of peace in times of war and suffering. Let's consider the character Andrei again. And also this is going to be a quick spoiler coming up for any of you who have not yet read the book and don't want to have this spoiled for you. But Andrei's most peaceful moments in his life come in times of war on the battlefield. He has his first religious experience in the Battle of Austerlitz, where he gets wounded in the battle and is laying on the battlegrounds and looking up at the sky. And he sort of gets overwhelmed by the grandiosity of the cosmos above him, such that he recognizes the insignificance of humanity as a whole and is imbibed with a sense of humility, inner peace. It's very tranquil and spiritual. Radically transforms his worldview. Then he has a second religious experience on the battlefield, where he receives what's going to ultimately be a fatal wound to his stomach. And as he's in camp injured and literally dying, he also sees his worst enemy, Anatole, who just had his leg amputated. And in the midst of his own suffering and seeing the suffering of his enemies, it's here where funny enough, Andrei finally is able to find a sense of forgiveness for his enemy. He forgives Anatole and begins to essentially kindle the sense of unconditional love for mankind. This is an instance of spiritual suffering, showing us that the grace and salvation of humanity comes in maintaining a faith in goodness, which means keeping faith when times are hard or at their hardest. If one is able to suffer spiritually, yet maintain an unconditional love, one has achieved salvation for themselves. One is aware of truth and has gained freedom. And although the world has the capacity to destroy our bodies, not even death can conquer the soul of one who loves unconditionally. Now let's summarize all of this and reach a conclusion. To briefly recap what we have discussed. In War and Peace, the goal of life is freedom and awareness. Being aware to the truth of the human existence grants us freedom. First thing we discussed was lack of free will. The necessity of us to learn that we cannot control the world, but we can control ourselves. And second theme was the delusions of solipsism. That there are universalities to the human experience and being aware of them helps us love one another. And then number three is the fruits of spiritual suffering. If we can embrace long-suffering and maintain our faith in unconditional love and truth and goodness, despite the sufferings of life, it is this faith and long-suffering that ultimately grants us and humanity as a whole salvation. So then according to War and Peace, the real meaning to life is unconditional love. And how do we embrace unconditional love? Well, it starts with humility. Of recognizing that we cannot control the world, but we can control ourselves. And once we accept the own limitations of our humanity, we grow clarity, wisdom, and insight to embrace virtue. And it's virtue that makes us aware to truth. And the truth that we ultimately discover is the universality of humanity. So it is truth that cultivates unconditional love. And unconditional love is the spirit which redeems the world of its suffering and grants each of us meaning to life. And while we go to seek unconditional love, we must recognize that we don't fully embrace unconditional love until we've maintained a faith in it, even in times of unjust suffering. And to maintain this faith and embracement of unconditional love while we suffer, that is the virtue of long-suffering. And that is what spiritually transforms us. It is the spiritual transformation of our spirit through the spirit of love that redeems our relationship to the world and grants us a truly meaningful life. And this is ultimately War and Peace's answer to the question of what it means to be human. Thanks so much for listening, y'all. I appreciate your time as always. And if you enjoyed this video, I'd love it if you left a thumbs up and perhaps a nice comment. Also, if you'd like to see videos similar to this one, I would encourage you to subscribe. And I hope you all have a blessed rest of your day. Thanks, y'all.