The life cycle of the personal novel within War and Peace is completed; the new generation awakens from a dream of the past and is eager to begin the future. To underscore the movements of the ebb and flow of generations that has occupied a great part of the novel, Tolstoy provides Nikolinka with a dream that seems an echo of Prince Andrey's youthful aspirations to glory and knowledge. Unlike his father, whose hero was Napoleon, however, Nikolinka admires Pierre, whose soul has a spiritual affinity with those of Kutuzov and Karataev. Tolstoy's conclusion sounds a note of youthful striving and optimism: It affirms the best parts of Pierre and Andrey as these qualities distill in the soul of the rising generation.
The staid, middle-aged domesticity of the Rostovs and the Bezuhovs reflects the peace and harmony of people who have matured through their experiences of life. They have passed through the trials of youth — the"war" as the title suggests — and have thus earned the spiritual and emotional peace of their adult lives.
These romantic youthful figures of War and Peace have become dull and complacent; after the hazards they have run, after the pain and anguish they have suffered, their quiescent emotions and uninteresting happiness is a disappointment to readers who have been caught up in the sweep and drama of their earlier lives. But Tolstoy's sense of realism forces us to face the dreary truth of adulthood: Youthful possibilities of an individual become narrowed by experiences that convey him to his appointed condition in life. The First Epilogue is not merely a brief statement of a lazy author's"and they lived happily ever after"; rather, it is a significant section of the work, which examines how the heroes live out their day-to-day lives once they have solved the burning problems of youth and once their time of adventure has passed.
