History Characters / WarandPeace

* AbusiveParents: He's not at all kind to his daughter Marya, frequently making untoward remarks about her appearance and intelligence.

[[folder:Platon Karataev]]
!!Platon Karataev
A kindly peasant man Pierre meets during the French invasion of Russia.

* {{Foil}}: Irrepressibly optimistic and carefree, compared to Pierre, who's been down in the dumps for some time when he meets him. In a more general sense, he's a counterpoint to the stuffy Russian aristocracy that Pierre has long since tired of.
* HeroesLoveDogs: Accompanied by a little dog to emphasize his kindhearted personality.
* MeaningfulName: Lives simply and with a great appreciation for life, and his existence serves as a sort of answer to Pierre's book-long ruminations on life and contentment. Wonder [[Creator/{{Plato}} which Greek philosopher]] his name reflects?

[[folder:Platon Karataev]]
!!Platon Karataev
A kindly peasant man Pierre meets during the French invasion of Russia.

* {{Foil}}: Irrepressibly optimistic and carefree, compared to Pierre, who's been down in the dumps for some time when he meets him. In a more general sense, he's a counterpoint to the stuffy Russian aristocracy that Pierre has long since tired of.
* HeroesLoveDogs: Accompanied by a little dog to emphasize his kindhearted personality.
* MeaningfulName: Lives simply and with a great appreciation for life, and his existence serves as a sort of answer to Pierre's book-long ruminations on life and contentment. Wonder [[Creator/{{Plato}} which Greek philosopher]] his name reflects?

!Other Characters
[[folder:Platon Karataev]]
!!Platon Karataev
A kindly peasant man Pierre meets during the French invasion of Russia.

* {{Foil}}: Irrepressibly optimistic and carefree, compared to Pierre, who's been down in the dumps for some time when he meets him. In a more general sense, he's a counterpoint to the stuffy Russian aristocracy that Pierre has long since tired of.
* HeroesLoveDogs: Accompanied by a little dog to emphasize his kindhearted personality.
* MeaningfulName: Lives simply and with a great appreciation for life, and his existence serves as a sort of answer to Pierre's book-long ruminations on life and contentment. Wonder [[Creator/{{Plato}} which Greek philosopher]] his name reflects?

Patriarch of the Rostov family. He's a kind and loving father, and is generous to a fault, frequently living beyond the family's means.

* CharacterDevelopment: Starts the novel as a carefree jock-type, but after [[spoiler:his family falls into bankruptcy and he has to financially support his mother and sister]], he's forced to grow up a bit.

[[folder:Sonya Rostova]]
!!Sofia "Sonya" Alexandrovna Rostova
An orphaned cousin of the Rostovs, who has been living with them since childhood.

* SocialClimber: Kuragin railroads Pierre into marrying his daughter because of the money this will bring.

* BrokenMessiah: Always trying to be the all-loving Christian, Marya is horrified when she realizes part of her is happy that [[AbusiveParents her father]] is dying because she will be able to be free to be happy when he dies.

* HeadTurningBeauty: Always described as very beautiful, and has a string of affairs as a result.

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Famed all throughout Russia for her beauty.

* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Nikolai loses an obscene amount of money[[note]]43,000 rubles, which today would amount to over $300,000[[/note]] to Dolokhov at cards, which doesn't help the family's suffering finances at all.

[[folder: Pierre Bezukhov]]

* AuthorAvatar: Pierre is a lot like Tolstoy himself. He definitely looks like him, with his awkwardness and heavyset frame, but more important, Pierre is a way for the author to ask a lot of deep questions about what it's all about (besides the hokey-pokey of course).
* AwfulWeddedLife: His marriage to Helene is a terrible one, since it's based entirely on lust, with no love or any other emotions involved.

* CharacterDevelopment: Pierre's is a long arc. He becomes more likable and heroic when Tolstoy begins to reshape him mid-novel into a sort of reluctant hero, who [[spoiler: goes off to war and starts to participate despite himself, who saves the lives of a French officer and a little girl even though he actually is trying to assassinate Napoleon, and who finally gets it together enough to start pursuing Natasha.]]

* ClassicalAntiHero: Pierre has none of the defining characteristics that would endear him to us or impress us with his power and skill -- instead, he's a wishy-washy fat man who spends most of his time agonizing about philosophy only to be totally carried away by craziness – like the idea that he is somehow destined to be Napoleon's anti-anti-Christ. In addition, he is weak-willed and easily browbeaten by those around him.

* DistractedByTheSexy: His wife Helene is so crazily hot that he can't think straight around her.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Pierre [[spoiler:goes crazy and thinks it's his destiny to assassinate Napoleon. ]]

* ThirdOptionLoveInterest: [[spoiler:To Natasha. After her brief tryst with Anatole wrecks her engagement to Andrei, he comforts her and realizes he loves her. They are married by the distant finale]].
* ThisIsMyNameOnForeign: He's called "Pierre," the French form of the name Peter/Pyotr.
* UglyGuyHotWife: He's stout, awkward, fat, and clumsy, but is railroaded into marrying Helene, one of the most beautiful women in Russia.

[[folder: Count Bezukhov]]

* WeHardlyKnewYe: The first we hear of him, he's dying, and his death comes very early in the story, [[spoiler: making Pierre one of the most powerful men in Russia]].

[[folder: Nikolai Bolkonsky]]

* PintsizedPowerhouse: A renowned war vet, but described as short and rather ugly.

[[folder: Andrei Bolkonsky]]

[[folder: Lisa Bolkonskaya]]

Wife to Andrei and a society favorite. Nicknamed "The Little Princess."

[[folder: Marya Bolkonskaya]]

* TheCaretaker: To her aging father, in his remote country estate, and also to [[spoiler: Andrei's son Nikolai when Andrei dies]].

* {{Nephewism}}: Raises Andrei's son Nikolai [[spoiler: after Andrei dies and she marries Nikolai Rostov]].

* WhenSheSmiles

[[folder: Ilya Rostov]]

* NiceGuy: Rostov is charming, generous, and approachable.

[[folder: Nikolai Rostov]]

* CharacterDevelopment: Starts the novel as a carefree jock-type, but [[spoiler: after his family falls into bankruptcy and he has to financially support his mother and sister]] he's forced to grow up a bit.

[[folder: Natasha Rostova]]

* FormerlyFit: [[spoiler: She's gone to seed in the distant finale.]]

[[folder: Sonya Rostova]]

* OldMaid: Implied to be her eventual fate, since [[spoiler: Nikolai marries Marya and she becomes a caretaker to their family.]] She is even referred to as a "sterile flower".
* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: Sonya dreams of [[spoiler: Prince Andrei lying down in bed in a rickety house, and that's where he dies.]]

[[folder: Marya Dmitriyevna Akhrosimova]]

* TheMatchmaker

[[folder: Vassily Kuragin]]

A nobleman related to the dying Count Bezukhov through his wife. When Pierre is named his successor, Kuragin seeks to further his family's position by marrying him to his daughter Helene.

[[folder: Anatole Kuragin]]

* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Loses part of his leg after the Battle of Borodino]].
* BrotherSisterIncest: Implied to be having an incestuous affair with Helene.

[[folder: Hélène Kuragina]]

* BrotherSisterIncest: Implied to be having an incestuous affair with Anatole.

* ThisIsMyNameOnForeign: She's addressed as "Hélène", when the Russian version of the name is Yelena/Elena.

[[folder: Boris Drubetskoy]]

* NobilityMarriesMoney: His family are {{impoverished patrician}}s, and he himself [[spoiler: marries Julie Karagina for her great fortune.]]
* SocialClimber: Rises up the ladder, eventually earning a position on the Tsar's staff. He ends the book having done reasonably well for himself, as he [[spoiler: marries a rich heiress]].

[[folder: Anna Mikhailovna]]

[[folder: General Kutuzov]]

* TheCassandra: Claims that participating in the Battle of Austerlitz is a bad idea. Russia does so anyway, gets its ass handed to it by the French, and Napoleon invades Austria. Oh well!

%%ReasonableAuthorityFigure

[[folder: Feodor Dolokhov]]

* BunnyEarsLawyer: His combat prowess gets him out of trouble.

[[folder: Vaska Denisov]]

[[folder: Platon Karataev]]

* RoyalBastard: He's the bastard son of one of the wealthiest, most powerful counts of Russia, who, upon his death, [[spoiler:legitimizes him]].

* UnexpectedInheritance: He was a favorite of his father's, but no one expected him to get [[spoiler:legitimized and inherit the title.]]

* BastardAngst: Pierre's the bastard of one of the wealthiest, most powerful counts of Russia, who, upon his death, legitimizes him. He was educated in Paris, and came back with very liberal ideas that make him a big outsider in the Russian aristocratic circles, who were already side-eyeing him for being illegitimate in the first place.

* CharacterDevelopment: Pierre's is a long arc. He becomes more likable and heroic when Tolstoy begins to reshape him mid-novel into a a sort of reluctant hero, who [[spoiler: goes off to war and starts to participate despite himself, who saves the lives of a French officer and a little girl even though he actually is trying to assassinate Napoleon, and who finally gets it together enough to start pursuing Natasha.]]

* HeroicBastard: He's progressive, generous, and good-natured.

* UnexpectedInheritance: He was a favorite of his father's, but no one expected him to get legitimized and inherit the title.

Son of famed general Nikolai Bolkonsky, sister to Marya, and best friend to Pierre. Disillusioned with his marriage and lifestyle, Andrei goes off to war hoping to find glory and purpose.

* YourCheatingHeart: Has a very brief tryst with Anatole, and suffers remarkably for it.

* YourCheatingHeart: Attempts to elope with Natasha despite having a secret wife of his own.

* YourCheatingHeart: Has an affair with Dolokhov right under Pierre's nose. After they have a falling-out about this, he takes her back and they remain married on paper, but she continues to cheat on him.

[[folder: Ippolit Kuragin]]
!!Hippolyte Vasilyevich Kuragin
Eldest child of Prince Vassily, described as dumb and odd. Strikingly resembles his younger sister, but is weak, gawky, and has "an ugliness that comes from his expression". Nicknamed "The Charming Ippolit"


[[/folder]]

* HelloNurse: Always described as very beautiful, and has a string of affairs as a result.

* NiceJobBreakingitHero: Pierre tries out religion and mysticism and becomes a Freemason. He really tries to commit himself to this order, and there are some things the Freemasons advocate that seem to really click for him. But everything he tries to do to follow Masonic rules ends up failing: his attempts to liberate his serfs end up a sad mess, for example.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Can't stand his wife, even though he insists she's nothing to complain about. The narration makes it clear that he finds her vapid, shallow, and histrionic, traits which he finds very tiresome.

* CulturedBadass: Kicks ass in both the dance floor and on the battlefield

!!Yelena "Hélène" Vasilyevna Bezukhova nee Kuragina