Morag Hood as Natasha in the BBC television production of War and Peace.

In the novel, War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, is a superb example of the Angelic and the Human qualities in the character of Natasha. In Fascinating Womanhood I have described Natasha’s enchanting quality of Radiant Happiness and her rare gift of knowing How to Listen to a Man. I would like to briefly review these traits and add a few things not yet said.

Natasha is a wonderful example of Radiant Happiness, one of the eight essential qualities of the Ideal Woman. Almost all men found Natasha fascinating. Even her brother, Nickoli was enchanted by her and said, “I could watch her forever.” She had sparkle and verve, pluck and audacity with a bit of mischief. At times she had a roguish expression. She was happy, radiant and in love with life. I again quote from War and Peace:

“Her love for life was the first quality that attracted prince Andrei to Natasha. As he was trying to sleep by an open window he heard her voice from a window above saying to her cousin, ‘Oh, how can you sleep. Just see how lovely it is. Oh, how glorious.’ There were almost tears in her voice. ‘There never, never was such an exquisite night! Look, what a moon!’ All was silent but Prince Andrei knew she was still sitting there. . . ‘What is she so glad about? What is she thinking of? Why is she so happy?’ And later, ‘Her charm mounted to his head like wine . . . He admired the radiance in her eyes and her smile which had to do with her own inner happiness and not with what they were saying.”

“In Natasha Prince Andrei was conscious of a strange world, completely remote from him and brim full of joys he had not known. . . His soul was so full of new and joyful sensations that it seemed to him as if he had just emerged from a stuffy room into God’s fresh air. . . And for the first time for a very long time he began making plans for the future. His feeling for her helped him believe in the possibility of happiness . . . I have never lived until now. Only now am I alive, but I cannot live without her.’ Prince Andrei seemed and really was an utterly different, new man. . . . What had become of his ennui, his contempt for life, his disillusionment? He marveled at the feeling which had taken possession of him, as something strange and apart, independent of himself. The whole world is split in two halves for me: She is in one half and there is all joy, hope and light: The other is where she is not and there everything is gloom and darkness.”

Natasha also had the wonderful quality of being a good listener, an angelic quality of the Ideal Woman. Again I quote from War and Peace: “When Pierre told her of his experiences in the war, he now saw a new significance in all he had been thorough. Now that he was telling it all to Natasha he experienced the rare happiness men know when women listen to them . . . the happiness true women give who are endowed with the capacity to select and absorb all that is best in what a man shows of himself. Natasha, without knowing it, was all attention; she did not miss a word, one inflection in his voice, no twitching of a muscle in his face nor a single gesture. She caught the still unspoken word on the wing and took it straight into her open heart, divining the secret import of all Pierre’s spiritual travail.”

Natasha also had an unshakable, valiant character, with a keen sense of right and wrong. This angelic quality appeared often, especially in time of urgent need. During the Russian war with Napoleon, when the inhabitants of Moscow were forced to leave their homes, Natasha’s family had carefully packed their belongings and loaded them on wagon carts, preparing to leave the city. Just as they were ready to leave a company of injured men arrived on foot. Natasha’s father suggested they unload the carts to make room for the wounded but the mother objected, rationalizing that the injured were not their responsibility. When Natasha discovered her mother’s selfish refusal she burst into the room, ‘It’s horrible, disgraceful,’ she screamed. ‘It can’t be true that it is by your orders. Mama, it’s impossible. Look what’s happening in the courtyard,’ she cried. ‘They’re being left. You can’t do it, mama, it’s all wrong. No, mama, it’s not right. Forgive me, mama, what do we want with all those things? You only look what’s going on in the courtyard. Mama, we can’t.‘ And so Natasha valiantly stood for the cause of right and honor and the carts were unloaded to make room for the wounded. ‘Out of the mouth of babes,’ murmured her father through tears of joy as he embraced his wife who was glad to hide her ashamed face against his breast.”

Tolstoy does not describe Natasha as being especially beautiful. She is considered charming, enchanting, and by some even pretty. At one point the author even elaborates on her defects by saying, “Natasha’s large mouth widened, making her look quite ugly. So, as in other examples of charming women, their appeal is not so much in the construction of their face as in their Angelic and Human qualities.

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