#great comet stuff

[silverysongs]

[({great comet aesthetics})]

MINOR CHARACTERS!

mary bolkonskaya;

plain.

“the pride of sacrifice gathers in my soul--”

( x x x x )

[riskystandard]

i love getting emails from redbubble saying i’ve made 20 cents

....but hey, if you wanna toss 20 cents my way

[silverysongs]

[({great comet aesthetics})]

fedya dolokhov;

fierce.

“don’t you know, don’t you think--?”

( x x x x x x x x x )

[silverysongs]

[({great comet aesthetics})]

sonya rostova;

good.

“is it all on me? is it all on me--?”

( x x x x x x x x x)

[silverysongs]

Let’s talk about Anatole and Andrei for a hot second

Okay. So I said in my last post that, more or less, Natasha views everything as hopeful and Pierre views everything as hopeless. BUT THEN that got me thinking about how similar they are, and more importantly, how similar Anatole and Andrei are.

(NOTE: i’m spelling andrei with an “I” because i’m a rebel.)

Now, hear me out. I recognize that the characters themselves are not that similar. But the way Natasha and Pierre view these men are. So really, I should say that our protagonists’  views of Anatole and Andrei are similar. 

Let’s start with Andrei. Natasha and Pierre both hold a kind of reverence for Prince Bolkonsky’s son. Natasha views her betrothed as a kind of angel and states (many times in the course of the musical) that she won’t ever feel the kind of happiness Andrei brings to her life now that he’s not here. Pierre shows a similar kind of respect at the beginning of the show (when he gives a solemn nod before Andrei leaves for war) and when he first interacts with him during “Pierre and Andrey” (“old friend,” my “friend you are in need,” etc.). However, the paradigm of Andrei as this great man sours as the musical comes to a close: Pierre is surprised at his friend’s cold dismissal of Natasha; the girl in question even admits “I know that [her dream of angelic bliss] is over/. . . that it never can be” (although, this could be more due to her social flounder than her opinion of her former betrothed). 

Now, the golden boy, Anatole Kuragin. Man, I hate Anatole. He’s a prick. He’s a really big prick, and a douche, and a jerk, and other, questionable names that I will not use on the internet. Yet both protagonists hold an amount of reverence for him. Natasha, though mostly bedazzled by his looks, is also starstruck by his charm and eloquence (partly stolen from Dolokhov in “Letters,” of course). Pierre, as with Andrei, holds a kind of respect for his blonder, more rambunctious friend, as he grudgingly compliments him as a “true sage” in “Preparations.” However, like with Andrei, Natasha and Pierre discover the truth about Anatole in that all he cares for is “gaiety and women” and not much for other people. Pierre furiously gives Anatole what for in “Pierre and Anatole,” showing the audience that he’s realized the depth of his friend’s hedonism. Likewise, in “Pierre and Natasha,” the latter greets Pierre in a distant, pensive manner like she’s been thinking about things (”the look on her face was quite different”) and though she defends her supposed lover (”don’t call him bad!”), she admits that she doesn't “know at all” what she thinks of him. 

So, in short: while both Natasha and Pierre initially hold semblances of respect for Andrei and Anatole, these opinions wane as the show comes to a close, proving that both these characters are multi-faceted, grayscale men despite their differences.

This was really long and proved that I have been out of school for six weeks too long.

I probably got some stuff wrong (I am not a professional essayist, just a fangirl who knows a thing or two about characters and words), so I’d love to hear what other peoples’ thoughts are!

[silverysongs]

[({great comet aesthetics})]

helene bezukhova;

slut.

“the queen of society: beautiful, barely clothed--!”

( x x x x x x x x x )

[silverysongs]

reason #3 why I relate to pierre

“Ah, that’s a true sage . . . living in the moment . . . what I wouldn’t give to be like him . . .”

[silverysongs]

GUYS

If (when) I do Great Comet aesthetics, I'm gonna make Natasha's white-themed and Pierre's black-themed because Natasha sees everything as good and hopeful and Pierre sees everything as sad and hopeless But then if (when) I make a ship aesthetic for them, it's gonna be gray because they both unconsciously realize the flaws in their views and recognize that people are a mix of good and evil