Prince Andrei Sparknotes

Throughout this section, Tolstoy investigates the origins of patriotism and national identity. Although many of the characters vigorously support the Russian cause, their reasoning for doing so are diverse. Prince Andrei hopes to achieve a gratifying career and get away from his wife; dreamy Nikolai glamorizes battle; Ippolit Kuragin wants opportunities to pick up women. None of these characters seem to be moved by nationalist feelings - all of them volunteered for the war due to self-interest or misconceptions.

The most patriotic character we see in this section seems to be Bilibin, and he isn’t even a Russian patriot. In his time as a diplomat, he seems to have become loyal to Austria, often using “we” to refer to the Austrians and siding with them against Prince Andrei in Brünn. Bilibin’s patriotic feelings are not for the country where he was born, but for the country where he has lived and made his career since he was sixteen. In the same way that war is a social equalizer, patriotism is not as rigid as each country would like to believe, but rather is a malleable concept as dependent on an individual’s desires as on his homeland.
In addition to the subplot about Telyanin stealing the purse, Prince Andrei witnesses someone is flogged for stealing, and one anonymous soldier accuses another of stealing (Pg. 197). Although the perpetrators are always people of relatively low rank (Telyanin is a low-ranking lieutenant, and the rest are foot soldiers), there is a loose parallel with the scuffle over the Bezukhov inheritance in Part 1. Tolstoy seems to suggest that although stealing may be more overt in the lower classes, it stems from basic qualities of human nature that are also present in the nobility. By transposing this theme into such a markedly different setting, Tolstoy continues to explore his theme of presenting the highest and lowest realms of humanity, here finding interesting