Andrew, still extremely ill but not forgetting his experience of universal love at the medical tent, tells Natásha he forgives her and loves her more than before.
Andrew, still extremely ill but not forgetting his experience of universal love at the medical tent, tells Natásha he forgives her and loves her more than before.
Book 11, Chapter 32
Andrew, still extremely ill but not forgetting his experience of universal love at the medical tent, tells Natásha he forgives her and loves her more than before.
Summary:
Not until seven days after the battle of Borodinó did Prince Andrew regain consciousness. He was still feverish, in great pain, and sometimes delirious, but there were signs of improvement and he had begun to take some nourishment. His doctor still worried he might not survive, though. He hadn’t yet recovered his ability to keep his mind focused on anything for long. He still remembers the overwhelming consciousness of universal love and forgiveness he had experienced after seeing Anatole in the medical tent. He forgave totally Natásha and wished he could see her. When he sees something white in his room he first believes it’s a hallucination. But, realizing Natásha is actually present, he tells her he totally forgives her and loves her now more than before. From then on, whenever the caravan stopped, Natásha was by his side helping to care for him. However, due to the huge unsettled questions of life and death, which hung not only over Bolkónski but overall Russia shutting out all other considerations, Natásha and Andrew never spoke about resuming their engagement.
quote from the chapter:
I experienced that feeling of love which is the very essence of the soul and does not require an object. Now again I feel that bliss. To love one’s neighbors, to love one’s enemies, to love everything, to love God in all His manifestations. It is possible to love someone dear to you with human love, but an enemy can only be loved by divine love. That is why I experienced such joy when I felt that I loved that man. What has become of him? Is he alive?…When loving with human love one may pass from love to hatred, but divine love cannot change. No, neither death nor anything else can destroy it. It is the very essence of the soul. Yet how many people have I hated in my life? And of them all, I loved and hated none as I did her. And he vividly pictured to himself Natásha, not as he had done in the past with nothing but her charms which gave him delight, but for the first time picturing to himself her soul. And he understood her feelings, her sufferings, shame, and remorse. He now understood for the first time all the cruelty of his rejection of her, the cruelty of his rupture with her. If only it were possible for me to see her once more! Just once, looking into those eyes to say…
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