War and Peace: Book 2, Part 5, Chapter 1

[osprey_archer]

At last we've made it through the thicket of the hunting party! And Natasha and Nikolai went to their relative's house and had a marvelous time, although Natasha sank promptly back into despair afterward, musing on the bitter question of whether she will waste her whole life away waiting for Prince Andrei to return. You're only seventeen, Natasha, I think you'll be okay.

Pierre, meanwhile, has sunk into the Depths of Despair. Even his Freemasonry has ceased to help him; he has at last noticed that Masons are just as likely as other people to pay lip service to their ideals while living lives full of hypocrisy and greed, and he just can't stand it. He "had that unfortunate facility common in many men, especially Russians, of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness and ruth, but seeing the evil and falsity of life too clearly to be able to take a serious part in it... 'Nothing is trivial, nothing important - it's all the same: one should only try to escape from it as best one can,' thought Pierre. 'If only one couldn't see it, that terrible it!'"

I think we're still a couple years out from Napoleon's invasion of Russia, which I imagine might rouse Pierre from his lethargy. But I hope neither we nor Pierre need to wait that long.

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Seventeen, though!! Is practically twenty! And everyone knows that twenty is ancient! Just look at Vera and Berg! D:

Poor Natasha.

Pierre sort of brings all his problems on himself, but it's not like that makes it any better! It makes it worse! :( It's all for the best that he's falling out a little with Freemasonry, though. It couldn't have suited him long-term (and I suspect he's known it from the start, at the back of his mind, and just wanted to believe. I've been there).

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Maybe Natasha thinks her marriage will inevitably become like Natasha and Berg's if she waits too long? It seems to suit them, but it wouldn't suit Natasha at all, so of course she's afraid of waiting.

Pierre reminds me of myself sometimes, so my exasperation with him is tempered by the desire to hug him and tell him "It's not that bad, Pierre, really it isn't."

I thought his early conversion seemed pretty sincere. But he definitely spent a long time staving off the realization that Freemasons are more or less as bad as anyone else, which I think he noticed pretty soon after he started hanging out with Freemasons aside from the guy who converted him.