2015年3月9日月曜日

War and Peace - Week 5



Another week, even fewer characters that I don't actively dislike. Haha. I managed to finish my reading on time this week, yayy! 


1) Could the disastrous meeting between Marya and Natasha have gone any other way? Who was to blame?

I don't think so. They were both being a bit stupid about it in the first place (if I recall correctly - I think my brain was so overtaken by the Natasha/Anatole drama that happens later that I have forgotten the details!), so I think they share the blame. I would say that Natasha is more to blame for it, but can you imagine how awkward it would be meeting the family of your significant other without said significant other not actually being there!? So much as I grew to dislike Natasha this week, I don't think it's entirely her fault.

2) Everyone seems to be secretly considering Marya for marriage at the moment. Do you think it will ever happen for her? Was Boris right to pick Julie?

I hope not, because marriage doesn't seem to be a particularly great thing in this book! Seeing as she is one of the characters who I actually don't dislike, I want her to get away from her family and.. I don't know, do some charity work or something because she would be good at that. And I think she would be much happier than she is at the moment. Poor Marya! Although she could do with learning to actually stick up for herself and that she doesn't just have to accept what is going on around her.

Boris and Julie? I don't really care. Maybe Julie will be more likely to actually stand up for herself, which is good? I do feel though in some ways that the message of this book is that marriage sucks, so I find it hard to support anything to do with marriage!!

3) There's too much drama with Natasha for me to formulate an all-encompassing question, so... I don't know. Discuss.

Oh Natasha. The Rostovs are slowly slipping down my tolerability scale (seriously, I really don't like anyone in this novel at all. I don't mind not having any likeable characters, but given how many characters there are I was expecting to like at least a couple of them!). They all seem so completely naive and clueless as to what is going on around them, and don't seem to be able to grasp the idea that people might not necessarily be what they seem on the surface. I would like to give Natasha the benefit of the doubt and say that she probably didn't really mean to hurt people in the way that she did or act so horribly, but she seems completely incapable of thinking through anything that she does or considering the consequences of any of her actions.

I am not really the biggest Andrei fan (or a fan at all), but seeing as he does seem to be making an effort to be a better person, I do feel bad for him. I think though that Anatole deserves his fair share of the blame for what happened here, obviously, but Natasha could have just not gone OOH PRETTY and run after him the way that she did. If you're mooning over someone for months and going on about how in love you are with them, you don't then run off with the next handsome person who pays you a bit of attention!

Urgh. I don't know. On the one hand I do feel a bit sorry for her as her only purpose in life seems to be to get married, which must be pretty depressing. I sort of don't blame her for wanting a little bit of excitement in her life? Still though...

4) Lots of characters are being fairly dickish this week. Who wins the prize for the person you'd most like to slap?  

At the moment I just feel very grateful that I don't live in the same kind of world or society that is portrayed in the book! So I'm not really that angry with any of the characters, just grateful its not me. If I have to choose though, I think I'll go for Anatole, as he seems to just go through life lying to everyone so he can have affairs with as many women as possible, and thinking that being charming can get him out of anything. I mean, obviously it can because it seems to be working for him, but he is a completely despicable human being. If the women who are going into it knew what kind of man he was then I wouldn't have a problem with it, but he obviously manipulates people into doing what he wants like he did with Natasha (she is obviously not entirely blameless, but I do feel she is more the victim here of both Anatole and her own stupidity). I am so glad that I don't know anybody like that!


There was soooo much drama this week, which is good as I think I like this book best when it is drama filled! Fingers crossed for another drama filled week!!


4 件のコメント:

  1. Oh, so much drama - maybe that's why it's been really fun to read lately!

    You are much more gracious with Natasha. Nothing's entirely her fault, but it's so easy to blame her all the same (she makes it really easy anyhow). As with Marya, I really want her to grow and stand for herself too, but since it's the 1800's, my hope for her development has run low. I'm hoping to be surprised!

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    1. :D

      When I first started writing this I was blaming her for everything too, but then I realised that although she is obviously not entirely blameless, she was just being an idiot and people like Anatole and Helene who knew exactly what they were doing definitely deserve my rage more.

      I'm not really expecting there to be major character development for Marya either, she has way too many obstacles in her way I think. But it would be nice!

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  2. I agree about the whole Boris/Julie thing - I sort of think they deserve each other but there's something about Boris that I find terribly uninteresting. He just sort of keeps popping up and insinuating himself with rich people and then disappearing off so I can't really care that much about him. Julie sort of became weird in Book 8 too so they're welcome to each other.

    I feel sad for Mary and I'm starting to think I'll just always feel sad for her. I think she just likes being tragic, to be honest.

    Good choice on Anatole - he's awful. Him and Helene together are even worse. Luring young women to parties to lead them astray is just mean. I do think Natasha should bear an awful lot of the blame for her behaviour but Anatole is a disgrace so I'm glad he'll get a slap from you to make up for me choosing Natasha :)

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    1. Yeah, I don't care about Boris either :D

      Marya definitely isn't really helping herself in any way - I tend to agree that she enjoys seeing herself as a martyr or a tragic figure, which is obviously a really healthy attitude to have!

      Slaps all around! I think Natasha needs a light slap and then a good talking to and maybe somebody to educate her in the ways of the world and point out that not everybody is good and trustworthy, and that she (and the rest of her family) is an idiot. I think I actually yelled "Stop being stupid!!!" at my book several times while reading these chapters, hehe.

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