Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky - Life and Death

Life and Death

At the beginning of the novel, the handsome and intellectual Andrei, disillusioned with married life and finding his wife preoccupied with trivialities, becomes an officer in the Third Coalition against his idol, Napoleon Bonaparte. He leaves his pregnant wife, Lise, to live at Bleak Hills in the countryside with his father and sister, while he goes to war.

Andrei is wounded at the Battle of Austerlitz. He has an epiphany while lying on the battlefield gazing up at the vastness of the blue sky, realising that he has the potential to be happy. Shortly afterwards, Andrei is rescued from the battlefield by Napoleon, who takes a liking to him. However, Prince Andrei is not listed among the dead or the officers taken prisoner, leading his father and sister to assume the worst. Neither inform Lise that he is unaccounted-for, fearing to cause her any anxiety in the final stages of her pregnancy. Andrei arrives, fully recovered, while his wife is in labour and sees her briefly before she dies in childbirth. The child, a boy, survives. Andrei, who, despite everything, had cared deeply for his wife (as he confides later to Pierre), is guilt-stricken and depressed. Completely disillusioned with his former wartime ambitions, Andrei spends the following few years at home, raising his son and serving under his father.

In 1809, Andrei is recalled to Petersburg, where he is formally introduced to Countess Natasha Rostova for the first time. Andrei wishes to marry Natasha, but his father expresses concern: he does not wish to see his son rush into a marriage with a woman half his age, and socially below him. Old Prince Bolkonsky demands that they wait a year before marrying. Andrei proposes marriage to Natasha, who happily accepts, though she is upset by the one-year wait. In the meantime Andrei decides to tour Europe.

In Andrei's absence however, Natasha develops an infatuation with the libertine Prince Anatole Kuragin. She breaks off the engagement with Andrei and plans to elope with Kuragin. Natasha is stopped by her cousin Sonya and Marya Dmitrievna, who suspect Anatole's intentions. They later find out from Pierre Bezukhov that Anatole is already secretly married to a Polish woman.

Andrei wants to take revenge on Kuragin, who flees after Pierre warns him. Not having found Kuragin and in the light of Napoleon's 1812 invasion, he decides to join the army again. When Kutuzov is appointed commander-in-chief, he offers Andrei a position in his personal staff. Andrei declines as he is a well-liked regimental commander, considering his role there to be more important than what he could possibly accomplish as a staff officer.

During the Battle of Borodino he is hit by a grenade and seriously wounded in the stomach. While in agony, he sees Anatole, whose leg is amputated due to war wounds, and realizes that he has the capability to forgive both Anatole and Natasha, and that he still loves her. He is driven back to Moscow, where Sonya (Natasha's cousin) notices him when the Rostovs are helping transport wounded soldiers. Eventually, Natasha discovers, and they are reunited. She tries to nurse him back to his health. Although Prince Andrei wounds begins to heal and health slowly returns, he eventually loses the will to live and dies in Natasha's care.