OHHHHHHHHHH PIERRE! Our Unlucky Rich Friend

OHHHHH PIERRE!!!

"It was as if the thread of the chief screw which held his life together were stripped, so that the screw could not get in or out, but went on turning uselessly in the same place." This line from page 303 tears on my heart strings a bit. Pierre has been a favorite of mine since the beginning of War and Peace, but bad things just keep on happening to him. He is, quite possibly, the most unlucky fellow to ever inherit a large fortune, and I cannot help but feel sad for Pierre whenever anything bad happens to him, regardless of whether or not he may have brought it upon himself.

Some may view Pierre as a common sense-deprived idiot that deserves everything he gets. One might argue that if Pierre is only going to think with body parts other than his head, he deserves Helene and her scandalous ways. There is also the infamous bear incident to back up this point, and the fact that Pierre chose to go out with his rowdy friends after telling Andrew he wouldn't certainly doesn't help his case. In times like these when it is easy to jump on the "Pierre is a total idiot" train, one must take care to remember that Pierre IS a good person and he always has good intentions. He does his best to please others, and while his common sense (or lack thereof) may hinder this on occasion, he doesn't deserve to be cheated on by Helene, and certainly not to be treated as he is by the rest of the aristocracy. Nearly all of Pierre's more questionable actions (i.e. shooting Dolokhov and the bear-policeman scandal) were the result of something bad happening first to Pierre or someone else egging him on to do something bad.

Pierre is easily persuaded, but that doesn't necessarily make him a bad person. I think I am rooting for Pierre so hard because he very much reminds me of myself. Just like me, Pierre is a kindhearted, passionate person, who just so happens to have a bit less common sense than most. He does not deserve many of the misfortunes that befall him, and Pierre is worthy of your sympathy as well as your good opinion.