War and Peace has a large cast of characters, approximately 580. The important characters portrayed in the novel are Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander I, his mother Maria Feodorovna, who is the most powerful woman in the Russian Royal Court. All these historical personalities lived in the era surrounding the 1812 French invasion of Russia. The plot involves five aristocratic families and is set during the Napoleonic wars.
War and Peace alternates between periods of war and peace in Russia during the first two decades of the nineteenth century. Tolstoy intended to write the story of a man returning home after having been exiled to Siberia in 1856. The man had been a Decembrist, a member of an enlightened revolutionary movement seeking constitutional
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There are many instances in history which have shown us that war, killing and death have been the turning point in the lives of many Kings.
The novel ends with these philosophical thoughts, which implicity makes me point that what is our power as individuals are the choices we make and our willingness to accept the simplicity of faith. We can make others happy and attempt to make ourselves happy, we can continue to ask questions about morality rather than acting selfishly and we can enjoy like, thankful for when it is good.
According to me no individual can change the course of history. Since history is determined by so many minute decisions by so many people, no single person, however powerful, can bend history to his or her will. This world view is radically democratic and it explains the parity in the story of real historic figures like Napoleon Bonaparte. No wonder, then, that an important theme of the novel is the search for meaning in lives whose order has been completely over turned because of war. Writing on the experiences depicted during the Crimean War, to me it appears that war in its wake sweeps aside individual aspirations, disturbs familial bonds and changes the destiny of nations