Nicolay in War and Peace

[lostdog]

I have just read War and Peace again after many years. I noticed someone was asking about Nicolay. Thinking about his character, I had to read to the end of the book to really see how he developed. When we first meet him, he is really a very young man, handsome and anxious to distinguish himself. He has dreams of heoric actions. He joins the Hussars as a young officer. We also see his deep attachment to his family and his cousin Sonya, who he promises to marry. In some adventures he shows not great judgement, but he has a strong sense of his own responciblilty for his actions. When he loses at cards to Dolohov, He has to go to his father to bail him out, but he cuts his allowance from his father, and trys to live within his means. At the pleading of his mother, Sonya eventually releases him from his vow. At the end of the book, he marries Princes Marya, Bolkonsky's sister. In spite of her wealth, he manages his estates with care, and looks after the welfare of his serfs with attention to their welfare. He pays back his brotherin law, Pierre. So his character becomes very responsable in a conservative sort of way. As a retired officer, he identifies strongly with the government of the Czar whom he was defending in the war against Napoleon. When Pierre at the end of the book proposes a society of honest men to oppose the wrongs of the corrupt government, Nicolay responds in anger that he would cut down anyone with his saber who went against the government. What I admire is the way Tolstoy led us gradually through this development, from a young man to the conservative land owner, defender of the old guard.

[lostdog]

I've been thinking about Sonya. Would she have made a good marriage with Nicolay?

[olichka]

I've been thinking about Sonya. Would she have made a good marriage with Nicolay?

I think so. She herself was responsible and sober and would have greatly helped him manage his affairs ( after all, didn't she help him during his difficult financial times following his father's death ?). Being responsible and devoted, she would have also made a good mother and since she was intelligent and well-educated, she would have attended to her children's education in much the same way that Princess Marya did. There was no difference between the 2 women in that respect, the only difference being that Marya was wealthy.

However, she and Nikolay would have had a hard time of it financially, off course, and Nikolay would probably have had to become a civil servant to pay off his debts and he would be paying them off for a long time !!! There's a strong possibility, also, that Nikolay's mother would have made both of them so miserable about not respecting her wishes, that their marriage would have suffered quite a bit as a result.

Tolstoy modelled the character of Sonya on a distant cousin of his father's, Tatiana Yergolskaya. As in the novel, his father was in love with his cousin, but gave her up to marry an heiress. After his wife ( Tolstoy's mother ) died in childbirth, his father proposed to his former love, but she turned him down. It's interesting to note that in the Epilogue Nikolay is horrified by the prospect of his pregnant wife dying. If that's a foreshadowing, is it fair to assume that he will propose to Sonya in the fictional future ? And will she turn him down, or gladly accept the responsibility of being his wife and a mother to his children ?

A question remains : did Nikolay indeed truly love Sonya ? For, although the two have an "understanding", nowhere in the novel is he portrayed as feeling strongly or passionately towards her. Their romance seems so commonplace and prosaic.

It's possible, as some critics have proposed that in the end Nikolay could not commit to Sonya simply because he did not love her, for, although pretty and graceful, she lacked spirit and fire, and so he could only value her for her good moral character, but love her he could not .So, perhaps, she was just a passing fancy. However, I also find Tolstoy's own explanation that N. was attracted to Marya's spirituality which made her more interesting than Sonya just too artificial and far-fetched. A manly and vigorous hussar like Nikolay would not be interested in such a personality, particularly when Marya was so plain and awkward and he liked pretty girls. So in the end, I think it was his duty as a son and his common sense that made him marry Marya. After all, in the Epilogue, he's not exactly described as a doting husband.

I guess, in the end, Nikolay just did not succeed in marrying true love ( and nowhere in the novel is he described as being passionately in love with anyone---is it because he's just a "mediocrity", as Tolstoy himself categorized him ? ), although he did manage to create a good home and family.