War and Peace: Volume 2, Part 2: Chapters 1–4 Summary & Analysis

After arguing with his wife, Pierre goes to Petersburg. As he waits at the posting station, lost in thought, he feels that the screw that holds his life together “turned in the same groove without catching hold[.]” He wonders about the nature of good and bad, love and hate. It seems that only death will resolve his questions, yet he fears dying.

Another traveler, waiting for horses, is brought into Pierre’s waiting room. The man is squat, wrinkled, and elderly with heavy brows over glittering eyes. The newcomer sits down and looks at Pierre with a penetrating expression. When the man closes his eyes and folds his hands, Pierre notices a large signet ring on one of his fingers; the ring is shaped like a skull. He keeps watching the man as he drinks tea and reads a book, feeling irresistibly drawn to him. At last, the other man speaks. He recognizes Pierre and has heard of his recent “misfortune.” He assures Pierre that he’s not just being nosy—he wants to help. When he smiles, the older man looks warm and fatherly.

When Pierre asks, the man acknowledges that he belongs to the brotherhood of Freemasons. Pierre feels torn—he instinctively trusts the kindly man, yet he’s mocked Masons in the past. He tells the stranger that their ways of thinking are totally opposite. The man replies that, in fact, Pierre’s conventional way of thinking is a grievous error. For himself, he cannot claim to know the truth—it’s only over countless generations that truth is attained, “stone by stone,” building “a worthy dwelling place” for God. Pierre is amazed by the confidence of his words.

Reluctantly, Pierre admits that he doesn’t believe in God. The Mason smiles like a wealthy man about to bestow a gift on a poor man. He says that Pierre doesn’t know God, and that’s why he is unhappy. He assures Pierre that God exists—in fact, he’s here, in both of them. If that weren’t true, how could they even be sitting here speaking of God? While it’s true that God is hard to understand, that just goes to show God’s greatness.

Pierre is transfixed by the stranger’s words. He’s not sure if he believes the content of the Mason’s speech or simply believes in the strength of the man’s conviction compared to his own total lack of conviction—but he wants to believe and feels that he does. The old man goes on to say that a person can’t understand God through reason, but through life. To do this, a man must purify himself, guided by the divine light of conscience, in order to attain a higher science. Seeming to know everything about Pierre’s past, the man points out that, far from purifying himself and helping others, Pierre has lived a life of idle depravity. Pierre agrees and asks the man for help. Before continuing on his journey, the man writes down a note for a man in Petersburg, Count Willarski. He encourages Pierre to spend time in solitude and self-reflection.

After the man goes, Pierre looks at the postmaster’s register and learns that his name was Osip Alexeevich Bazdeev, a well-known Mason and Martinist. Pierre paces the station, thinking over his past debauched life and joyfully anticipating a reformed, virtuous life in the future. It seems to him that, now that he recognizes the goodness of virtue, it will be easy to change his life. He imagines that Masonry is simply a brotherhood united to support one another on such a path.

When Pierre arrives in Petersburg, he spends his time reading Thomas à Kempis. The book shows him the idea of becoming perfect and spreading brotherly love among people, as Osip Alexeevich had said. The week after his arrival, the young Polish Count Willarski comes to visit him. He enters the room with the same solemn look Pierre had seen when Dolokhov’s second approached him before the duel. He looks strikingly different from the cheerful society man Pierre had vaguely known before.

Count Willarski asks Pierre if he wishes to join the Freemasons under his sponsorship. He also asks Pierre if he’s renounced his former convictions and now believes in God. Reflectively, Pierre says that he does believe in God. Then they get into Willarski’s carriage and drive to the Freemasons’ lodge. Willarski explains that Pierre will be tested, and all he has to do is tell the truth. Willarski blindfolds Pierre, kisses him, and leads him forward by the hand. He wishes Pierre courage and tells him to take off the blindfold when he hears knocking at the door.

Pierre waits for about five minutes, going through a series of emotions: fear, curiosity, and most of all, joy about the new life that’s beginning. When he hears the knock at the door, he removes the blindfold and finds himself in a room that’s almost completely dark. He sees a lamp burning inside a human skull, an open Bible, and a coffin filled with bones. Then a short man wearing a long apron enters the room. Pierre recognizes the rhetor (the man who prepares seekers to join the Masons)—an acquaintance named Smolyaninov.

When prompted to state his purpose, Pierre feels unable to speak at first, but finally he says that he wants renewal and hopes that the Masons can guide him. He speaks haltingly because he’s not used to discussing abstract subjects in Russian. Then the rhetor explains the ancient mysteries handed down by Freemasonry, which require personal purification. Masonry’s other goal is that members become moral exemplars for humanity as a whole. Pierre feels especially drawn to the latter goal, hoping to help others who are as morally depraved as he used to be.

Half an hour later, the rhetor returns and tells Pierre the seven virtues which Masons are expected to cultivate. These correspond to the seven steps of Solomon’s temple: discretion, obedience, morality, love of humanity, courage, generosity, and love of death. The latter virtue means that the individual should meditate on death until he no longer fears it. Pierre thinks over the virtues and especially feels drawn to obedience—after all his struggling to understand life, the idea of submitting to someone else seems freeing. When the rhetor returns this time, Pierre tells him that he’s ready for everything.

The rhetor explains that Masonic induction communicates its teachings not just verbally, but through symbolic hieroglyphs. He asks Pierre to hand over his valuables as a sign of generosity. Then he tells Pierre to undress as a sign of obedience. Once that’s done, he asks Pierre to tell him his main predilection—the one that’s given him the most difficulty on the path of virtue. After much thought, Pierre says his main vice is “women.” After this, the rhetor blindfolds him once more and tells him that, from now on, he must seek blessedness not from the outside world, but within.

After being led through a maze of hallways, Pierre hears allegories about the dangerous labors of life’s journey and about the architect of the world. After multiple blindfoldings, Pierre’s eyes are uncovered to reveal a dozen men seated around a table; he recognizes some of them from Petersburg society. He’s given several symbolic objects, like an apron (for blamelessness), a trowel (the work of purification), and several pairs of gloves (one of which must be given to the woman Pierre honors most).

Pierre is finally allowed to sit down at the table, and the grand master reads the rules. Pierre is so overwhelmed he cannot understand them, but he remembers the last one—that Masons may only make distinctions between virtue and vice. Otherwise, they must never violate the equality between members. They must be quick to help, encourage, and forgive one another. Then the grand master embraces Pierre, and Pierre’s eyes fill with tears of joy. On the way home from the meeting, he feels as if he has returned from a faraway journey and completely changed his way of life.