Witnessing the executions traumatizes Pierre. He falls into a stupor. But that evening happening to meet a kindly peasant named Platón Karatáev in the barracks restores Pierre to mental equilibrium.
Witnessing the executions traumatizes Pierre. He falls into a stupor. But that evening happening to meet a kindly peasant named Platón Karatáev in the barracks restores Pierre to mental equilibrium.
Book 12, Chapter 12
Witnessing the executions traumatizes Pierre. He falls into a stupor. But that evening happening to meet a kindly peasant named Platón Karatáev in the barracks restores Pierre to mental equilibrium.
Summary:
After the executions, Pierre is pardoned and sent to the barracks for the prisoners of war. But witnessing these murders left Pierre in a highly traumatized state, in fact almost in a stupor. From the moment Pierre had witnessed those terrible murders committed by men who did not wish to commit them, it was as if the mainspring of his life, on which everything depended and which made everything appear alive, had suddenly been wrenched out and everything in Pierre’s psyche had collapsed into a heap of meaningless rubbish. Though he did not acknowledge it to himself, Pierre’s faith in the right ordering of the universe, in humanity, in his own soul, and in God, had been destroyed. Although he could still see and hear his surroundings, Pierre’s mind had sunken into a dense fog. That evening, though, in the barracks Pierre meets a remarkable kindly humble peasant named Platón Karatáev. Platón speaks with Pierre about life and his family, telling Pierre that I say things happen not as we plan but as God judges”. Platón shares his simple food with Pierre, some baked potatoes which Pierre finds delicious. This brief contact with this humble but saintly peasant lifts Pierre out of his trauma and restores Pierre’s mental equilibrium. That evening, Pierre did not sleep, but lay with eyes open in the darkness, listening to the regular snoring of Platón who lay beside him. Pierre now felt that the world that had been shattered was once more stirring in his soul with a new beauty and on new and unshakable foundations.
quote from the chapter:
From the moment Pierre had witnessed those terrible murders committed by men who did not wish to commit them, it was as if the mainspring of his life, on which everything depended and which made everything appear alive, had suddenly been wrenched out and everything had collapsed into a heap of meaningless rubbish. Though he did not acknowledge it to himself, his faith in the right ordering of the universe, in humanity, in his own soul, and in God, had been destroyed. He had experienced this before, but never so strongly as now. When similar doubts had assailed him before, they had been the result of his own wrongdoing, and at the bottom of his heart he had felt that relief from his despair and from those doubts was to be found within himself. But now he felt that the universe had crumbled before his eyes and only meaningless ruins remained, and this not by any fault of his own. He felt that it was not in his power to regain faith in the meaning of life.
Click here to read full text of this chapter.
Please help improve this shared document by posting your suggested corrections, clarifications, and changes below. Thank you!