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Tolstoy sets up the peasants (Godsfolk) as being closest to God and a heavenly life, but I doubt they would feel the same way. They too are sinners, just like Andrei and Pierre and Maria. But is Maria any worse than a pilgrim? Is her being rich a bad thing? Is her education (which she struggles at; math, anyway) keeping her from God? Is this the struggle Tolstoy felt about himself? Is loving a person bad?

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I now Maria means well, but I can only image getting a letter like that after someone I loved died. Yes, she’s right, but who wants to hear religious apologization at a time like that?

Maybe it’s my own sin, but someone who continually forgives everyone the wrongs done to them seems to not be living their own life. Maria lives so isolated that she forgets herself. But is that morally bad?

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“whatever may happen, to turn to him [Pierre] alone for advice and help!”. This whole chapter is a way to lead up to this statement, because this is the inevitable outcome of their relationship. And while it’s a crooked road to finally get Pierre and Natasha together, it follows the crooked road Napoleon takes to get to Moscow, and then is driven out. So many elements come into play that cant be predicted.

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“In a year you will learn to know yourself” – if there’s anyone in the novel who actually does know themselves it’s Natasha.

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In a chapter about lovers being separated, Tolstoy writes the chapter from a few different points of view, something he usually doesn’t do. He does this to tie these two characters together so we feel their separation more strongly. However, he doesn’t write from Andrei’s point of view, but of the source of the separation: his father. And from this we feel the frustration Natasha feels.