Personal interests of heroes and the motif of expectation in Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and peace

In this article, the author addresses a problem of combining the personal and the common in Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace and also traces how in this work the interests of individuals are combined with public life. V. G. Andreeva proves that the external opposition between celebrities and ordinary people is enhanced by the epic novel reflections on the Christian behavior of people, their roles and places in the spiritual unity. Tolstoy’s artistic world is filled with duality and diversity that exist in real life, thanks to unfocused and unconcentrated action. V. G. Andreeva is convinced that the writer achieves a surprising balance between activity and passivity of the person in his epic novel, in particular by means of the motif of expectation, which organizes the plot development, conveys deep meaning, and contributes to the organization of epic time and its current. War and Peace raises an extremely important problem of personal interest in the occurrence of this or that event, a strong-willed action and the role of personality in history. Tolstoy masterfully levels down the value of personal interest when he writes about the people and the global choice, and brings the conscious choice of heroes into focus when it comes to a character’s specific path. The best heroes of Tolstoy are not capable to humility and self-rejection, and even those who are forced by the fate to forget themselves look as if they “live against their own will”. Key words: Tolstoy, epic novel, motive of expectation, people, society, cathedral unity, personal interests