Pierre Bezukhov
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Count Pierre Kirilovich Bezukhov (Russian: Пьер Безухов, Пётр Кириллович Безухов, or Pierre Bezuhov according to Rosemary Edmonds translation) is a central fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. He is an illegitimate son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov, who was one of the richest people of Russia of the time.
Pierre, whom many critics regard as a reflection of Tolstoy himself, attracts our sympathy in his status as an outsider to the Russian upper classes. His simplicity and emotional directness contrast with the artificiality of fakes such as the Kuragins. Though the attendees at Anna Pavlovna's party consider Pierre uncouth and awkward, this very awkwardness emphasizes his natural unpretentiousness. We see his love of fun in his expulsion from St. Petersburg for excessive partying, and his generosity in his bank-breaking largesse toward friends and acquaintances following his inheritance.
Pierre, though intelligent, is not dominated by reason, as his friend Andrei is. Pierre’s emotional spurts occasionally get him into trouble, as when his sexual passions make him prey to the self-serving and beautiful Elena. He shoots her suspected lover, Dolohov, in a duel but then leaves his wife to her devices in order to become a Freemason. His madcap escape into the city of Moscow and his subsequent obsessive belief that he is destined to be Napoleon’s assassin show his submission to irrational impulses. Yet there is also great nobility in Pierre’s emotions, and his search for meaning in his life becomes a central theme of the novel. We feel that his final marriage to Natasha Rostova represents the culmination of a life of moral and spiritual questioning.
