At the sight of the battlefield heaped with dead and wounded, Napoleon's phantasm of life is momentarily replaced by personal, human sentiment as he imagines the agonies and death for himself. To take personal responsibility or personal interest in that carnage is too much for him; this would admit the vanity of all his strivings. He must return to his comfortable fantasy, consider it significant that five Russian corpses lie for each French one, that he is battling for the welfare of his people and the nations of Europe, and that he controls the destiny of millions.
Borodino has blood-soaked ground for two acres. Thousands lie dead. Borodino is not a physical victory, since half the Russian force is disabled, but it is a moral one. The Russians have stood and barred the way to Moscow, while the French, superior in arms and men, would merely have had to put in a little extra effort to overcome the weak resistance. They could not do this, Tolstoy declares, for their moral force was exhausted in face of the steadfast defenders. Borodino foreshadows the inevitability of the French defeat, now that they meet a foe of a stronger spirit.
