The Master and Margarita is a phantasmagoric novel by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, which occupies an ambiguous position in Russian literature. "The Master and Margarita" is a book written in an original language, the fates of ordinary people, mystical powers, sharp satire and a genuine atmosphere of atheism are intertwined here.
It is precisely because of this "heap" of various literary devices and a kaleidoscope of events that it is difficult for the reader to grasp the deep political and moral meaning that lies in this great work. Everyone finds their own meaning in this novel, and this is its versatility. Someone will say that the meaning of "The Master and Margarita" lies in the exaltation of love, which conquers even death, someone will object: no, this is a novel about the eternal confrontation between good and evil, about the promotion of Christian values. What is the truth?
There are two storylines in the novel, each of which takes place at a different time and in a different place. At first, events unfold in Moscow in the 1930s. On a quiet evening, as if from nowhere, a strange company appeared, headed by Woland, who turned out to be Satan himself. They do things that radically change the lives of some people (as an example, the fate of Margarita in the novel "The Master and Margarita"). The second line develops by analogy with the biblical plot: the action takes place in the Master's novel, the main characters are the prophet Yeshua (an analogy with Jesus) and the procurator of Judea. which the author originally invested in his work.
Yes, the meaning of The Master and Margarita can be interpreted in different ways: this novel is about great and pure love, and about devotion and self-sacrifice, and about striving for truth and fighting for it, and about human vices, which Woland examines at a glance from the stage. However, there is also a subtle political subtext in the novel, it simply could not be missing, especially considering the time at which he did his own - cruel repressions, constant denunciations, total surveillance of the lives of citizens. "How can you live so calmly in such an atmosphere? How can you go to shows and find your life successful?" - as if the author asks. Pontius Pilate can be considered the personification of the merciless state machine.
Suffering from migraine and suspiciousness, not loving Jews and people in general, he, nevertheless, is imbued with interest, and then sympathy for Yeshua. But, despite this, he did not dare to go against the system and save the prophet, for which he was subsequently doomed to suffer doubts and repentance for all eternity, until the Master freed him. Thinking about the fate of the procurator, the reader begins to comprehend the moral meaning of The Master and Margarita: "What makes people compromise their principles? Cowardice? Indifference? Fear of responsibility for their actions?"
In the novel "The Master and Margarita" the author deliberately neglects the biblical canons and gives his own interpretation of the nature of good and evil, which often change places in the novel. Such a look helps to take a fresh look at familiar things and discover a lot of new things where, it would seem, there is nothing to look for - this is the meaning of The Master and Margarita.
"The Master and Margarita" analysis - genre, plot, problems, theme and idea
"The Master and Margarita" analysis of the work
Year of writing - 1929-1940
Genre "Master and Margarita": mystical, philosophical, satirical, fantastic, "magical realism". In form it is a novel within a novel (Bulgakov writes a novel about a master, a master writes a novel about Pilate; Levi Matthew writes about Yeshua)
Theme "The Master and Margarita"- Ethical responsibility of a person for his actions
The idea of "Master and Margarita"— 1) The search for truth is impossible without patience, courage, love. In the name of love and faith, Margarita overcomes fear and overcomes circumstances.
2) The course of history does not change human nature: Judas and Aloysius exist at all times.
3) The writer's duty is to restore a person's faith in lofty ideals, to restore the truth in spite of the circumstances of life.
"Master and Margarita" plot
The action of the novel begins on one of the May days, when two Moscow writers - the chairman of the board of MASSOLIT Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz and the poet Ivan Bezdomny - while walking on the Patriarch's Ponds, meet a stranger who looks like a foreigner. He joins in a conversation about Jesus Christ, talks about his stay on the balcony of the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, and predicts that Berlioz will be cut off by a “Russian woman, a Komsomol member.” The writers do not know that before them is Woland - the devil, who arrived in the Soviet capital with his retinue - Fagot-Koroviev, Azazello, the cat Behemoth and the maid Hella.
After the death of Berlioz, Woland settled in Mikhail Alexandrovich's "bad apartment", located at Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, 302-bis. Satan and his assistants arrange a series of pranks and hoaxes in Moscow: they send the director of the Variety, Styopa Likhodeev, to Yalta, conduct a session of black magic, organize forced choral singing for employees of the branch of the entertainment commission, expose the chairman of the acoustic commission Arkady Apollonovich Sempleyarov and the theater barman Andrei Fokich Sokov. For Ivan Bezdomny, a meeting with Woland and his entourage turns into a mental illness: the poet becomes a patient in a psychiatric hospital. There he meets the Master and learns the story of his novel about Pontius Pilate. Having written this work, the author was faced with the world of metropolitan literature, in which refusals to publish were accompanied by persecution in the press and proposals to strike at the "pilatch". Unable to withstand the pressure, the Master burned the manuscript in the fireplace; after a series of trials, he ended up in a house of sorrow.
For Margarita - the thirty-year-old childless wife of a very prominent specialist and the Master's secret wife - the disappearance of her beloved becomes a drama. One day she admits to herself that she is ready to lay her soul to the devil in order to find out if he is alive or not. The thoughts of a woman tormented by ignorance are heard: Azazello hands her a jar of miraculous cream. Margarita turns into a witch and plays the role of a queen at Satan's great ball. Her cherished dream comes true: Woland arranges a meeting between the Master and his beloved and returns the manuscript of the burnt novel to them.
The work written by the Master is a story that began in the palace of Herod the Great. The procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, is brought under investigation Yeshua Ha-Nozri, who was sentenced to death by the Sanhedrin for neglecting the power of Caesar. Conversing with Yeshua, the procurator realizes that he is facing a wandering philosopher; his views on the truth and thoughts that any power is violence against people are interesting to Pilate, but he cannot save the wanderer from execution. Knowing that Judas from Kiriath received money for allowing Ha-Nozri to be arrested in his house, the procurator instructs the head of the secret service, Aphranius, to kill the traitor.
The combination of two storylines occurs in the final chapters. Woland is paid a visit by Yeshua's disciple Levi Matvey, who asks to reward the Master and Margarita with peace; this request is being fulfilled. At night, a group of flying horsemen leaves Moscow; among them are not only Messire and his retinue, but also the author of the novel about Pontius Pilate with his beloved.
The work of Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", recognized as a genius, still amazes even modern readers, it is almost impossible to find an analogue of a novel of such originality and skill.
Moreover, even modern writers can hardly identify the reason why the novel has gained such fame and what is its main, fundamental motive. Often this novel is called "unprecedented" not only for Russian, but also for world literature.
The main idea and meaning of the novel
The story of The Master and Margarita takes place in two time periods: the era in which Jesus Christ lived, and the period of the Soviet Union. Paradoxically, the writer combines these two such different eras, and draws deep parallels between them.
After all, the protagonist of the work, the Master himself, writes a novel about Christian history, about Yeshua Ha-Nozri, Judas and Pontius Pilate. Bulgakov unfolds the incredible phantasmagoria as a separate genre and stretches it over the entire narrative of the novel.
The events taking place in the present time are surprisingly connected with the fact that once forever changed humanity. It is very difficult to single out one specific theme that the novel could be devoted to, The Master and Margarita touches on too many sacramental and eternal topics for art, and especially for literature.
This is the theme of love, unconditional and tragic, the meaning of life, distortions in the perception of good and evil, this themes of justice and truth, insanity and unconsciousness. It cannot be said that the writer reveals this directly, he creates an integral symbolic system that is rather difficult to interpret.
The main characters of his novels are so extraordinary and non-standard that only their images can serve as a reason for a detailed analysis of the concept of his novel, which has already become immortal. The Master and Margarita is written with a bias towards philosophical and ideological themes, which gives rise to the vast versatility of its semantic content.
"Master and Margarita" - out of time
You can interpret the main idea of the novel in completely different ways, but for this you need to have a high level of culture and education.
The two key characters Ga-Notsri and the Master are a kind of messiah, whose bright activity affects completely different epochs. But the history of the Master is not so simple, his light, divine art is connected with dark forces, because his beloved Margarita turns to Woland to help the Master.
The highest artistry of The Master and Margarita lies in the fact that the brilliant Bulgakov simultaneously tells about the arrival of Satan and his retinue in Soviet Moscow, and how the tired and lost judge Pontius Pilate sentences the innocent Yeshua Ha-Nozri to execution.
The last story, the novel that the Master writes, is amazing and sacred, but Soviet writers refuse to publish the writer because they do not want to recognize him as worthy. Around this, the main events of the work unfold, Woland helps the Master and Margarita restore justice and returns to the writer the previously burned novel.
"The Master and Margarita" is an impressive, psychological book that, with its depth, reveals the idea that circumstantial evil does not exist, that evil and vice are in the souls of people themselves, in their actions and thoughts.
"As the Father knows Me, so I know the Father" (John 10:15), the Savior testified before His disciples. "... I don't remember my parents. I was told that my father was a Syrian...", asserts the wandering philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri during interrogation by the fifth procurator of Judea, the equestrian Pontic Pilate.
Already the first critics who responded to the journal publication of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita noticed, could not fail to notice Yeshua's remark about the notes of his student Levi Matvey: “In general, I begin to fear that this confusion will continue for a very long time. -because he incorrectly writes after me. /.../ He walks, walks alone with a goat parchment and writes continuously. But I once looked into this parchment and was horrified. I did not say absolutely anything from what was written there. I begged him: burn your parchment for God's sake! But he snatched it from my hands and ran away. Through the mouth of his hero, the author denied the truth of the Gospel.
And without this replica, the differences between Scripture and the novel are so significant that a choice is imposed on us against our will, because both texts cannot be combined in consciousness and soul. It must be admitted that the glamor of verisimilitude, the illusion of certainty, are extraordinarily strong in Bulgakov. Undoubtedly: the novel "The Master and Margarita" is a true literary masterpiece. And it always happens: the outstanding artistic merit of the work becomes the strongest argument in favor of what the artist is trying to inspire...
Let us focus on the main thing: before us is a different image of the Savior. It is significant that Bulgakov carries this character with a different sound of his name: Yeshua. But that is Jesus Christ. No wonder Woland, anticipating the story of Pilate, assures Berlioz and Ivanushka Bezdomny: "Keep in mind that Jesus existed." Yes, Yeshua is Christ, presented in the novel as the only true one, as opposed to the gospel, allegedly invented, generated by the absurdity of rumors and the stupidity of the disciple. The myth of Yeshua is happening before the eyes of the reader. So, the head of the secret guard, Aphranius, tells Pilate a real fiction about the behavior of a wandering philosopher during the execution: Yeshua did not at all say the words attributed to him about cowardice, did not refuse to drink. The credibility of the student's notes is undermined initially by the teacher himself. If there can be no faith in the testimonies of clear eyewitnesses, then what can be said about the later Scriptures? Yes, and where does the truth come from, if there was only one disciple (the rest, therefore, impostors?), and even that can only be identified with the Evangelist Matthew with a big stretch. Therefore, all subsequent evidence is fiction of the purest water. So, placing milestones on the logical path, M. Bulgakov leads our thought. But Yeshua differs from Jesus not only in the name and events of his life - he is essentially different, different at all levels: sacred, theological, philosophical, psychological, physical. He is timid and weak, simple-minded, impractical, naive to the point of stupidity. He has such an incorrect idea of life that he is not able to recognize in the curious Judas of Kiriath an ordinary provocateur-informer. By the simplicity of his soul, Yeshua himself becomes a voluntary informer on the faithful disciple of Levi Matthew, blaming him for all misunderstandings with the interpretation of his own words and deeds. Indeed, simplicity is worse than theft. Only Pilate's indifference, deep and contemptuous, essentially saves Levi from possible persecution. And is he a sage, this Yeshua, ready at any moment to have a conversation with anyone and about anything?
His motto: "Telling the truth is easy and pleasant." No practical considerations will stop him on the path to which he considers himself called. He will not beware, even when his truth becomes a threat to his own life. But we would be deluded if we denied Yeshua any wisdom on this basis. He reaches a true spiritual height, proclaiming his truth contrary to the so-called "common sense": he preaches, as it were, over all concrete circumstances, over time - for eternity. Yeshua is tall, but tall by human standards. He is a human. There is nothing of the Son of God in him. The divinity of Yeshua is imposed on us by the correlation, in spite of everything, of his image with the Person of Christ. But we can only conditionally admit that we are not dealing with a God-man, but a man-god. This is the main new thing that Bulgakov introduces, in comparison with the New Testament, into his "gospel" about Christ.
Again: there would be nothing original in this if the author remained on the positivist level of Renan, Hegel or Tolstoy from beginning to end. But no, it was not for nothing that Bulgakov called himself a "mystical writer", his novel is oversaturated with heavy mystical energy, and only Yeshua knows nothing but a lonely earthly path - and at the end of it, a painful death awaits him, but by no means Resurrection.
The Son of God showed us the highest example of humility, truly humbling His Divine power. He, who with one glance could destroy all oppressors and executioners, accepted from them reproach and death of his good will and in fulfillment of the will of His Heavenly Father. Yeshua has clearly left to chance and does not look far ahead. He does not know his father and does not carry humility in himself, for there is nothing for him to humble. He is weak, he is completely dependent on the last Roman soldier, unable, if he wanted to, to resist an external force. Yeshua sacrificially bears his truth, but his sacrifice is nothing more than a romantic impulse of a person who has a poor idea of his future.
Christ knew what awaited Him. Yeshua is deprived of such knowledge, he ingenuously asks Pilate: “Would you let me go, hegemon…” and he believes that it is possible. Pilate would really be ready to let the poor preacher go, and only a primitive provocation by Judas from Kiriath decides the outcome of the matter to the disadvantage of Yeshua. Therefore, according to the Truth, Yeshua lacks not only volitional humility, but also the feat of sacrifice.
Nor does he have the sober wisdom of Christ. According to the testimony of the evangelists, the Son of God was laconic in the face of His judges. Yeshua, on the other hand, is overly talkative. In his irresistible naivety, he is ready to reward everyone with the title of a good person and, in the end, agrees to the point of absurdity, arguing that it was precisely “good people” who mutilated the centurion Mark. Such ideas have nothing to do with the true wisdom of Christ, who forgave His executioners for their crime.
Yeshua, on the other hand, cannot forgive anyone or anything, for only guilt, sin can be forgiven, and he does not know about sin. He generally seems to be on the other side of good and evil. Here we can and should draw an important conclusion: Yeshua Ha-Nozri, even if he is a man, is not destined by fate to make a redemptive sacrifice, he is not capable of it. This is the central idea of Bulgakov's story about the wandering herald of truth, and this is the denial of the most important thing that the New Testament carries.
But even as a preacher, Yeshua is hopelessly weak, for he is not able to give people the main thing - faith, which can serve as a support for them in life. What can we say about others, if even a faithful disciple does not stand the first test, in despair sending curses to God at the sight of the execution of Yeshua.
Yes, and having already discarded human nature, almost two thousand years after the events in Yershalaim, Yeshua, who finally became Jesus, cannot overcome the same Pontius Pilate in a dispute, and their endless dialogue is lost somewhere in the depths of the boundless future - on the way woven from moonlight. Or is Christianity showing its failure here in general? Yeshua is weak because he does not know the Truth. That is the central moment of the whole scene between Yeshua and Pilate in the novel - a dialogue about Truth.
What is Truth? - Pilate asks skeptically.
Christ was silent here. Everything has already been said, everything has been proclaimed. Yeshua is extraordinarily verbose: - The truth is, first of all, that your head hurts, and it hurts so much that you cowardly think about death. Not only are you unable to speak to me, but it is even difficult for you to look at me. And now I am unwittingly your executioner, which saddens me. You can't even think of anything and only dream of your dog coming, apparently the only creature to which you are attached. But your torment will now end, your head will pass.
Christ was silent - and this should be seen as a deep meaning. But if he spoke, we are waiting for an answer to the greatest question that a person can ask God; for the answer must sound for eternity, and not only the procurator of Judea will heed it. But it all comes down to an ordinary session of psychotherapy. The sage-preacher turned out to be an average psychic (let's put it in a modern way). And there is no hidden depth behind those words, no hidden meaning. Truth has been reduced to the simple fact that someone is having a headache at the moment. No, this is not a belittling of the Truth to the level of ordinary consciousness. Everything is much more serious. Truth, in fact, is denied here at all, it is declared only a reflection of the fast-flowing time, subtle changes in reality. Yeshua is still a philosopher. The Word of the Savior has always gathered minds in the unity of Truth. The word of Yeshua encourages the rejection of such unity, the fragmentation of consciousness, the dissolution of the Truth in the chaos of petty misunderstandings, like a headache. He's still a philosopher, Yeshua. But his philosophy, outwardly opposed as if to the vanity of worldly wisdom, is immersed in the element of "the wisdom of this world."
"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God, as it is written: It catches the wise in their craftiness. And again: The Lord knows the minds of the wise that they are vain" (1 Cor. 3, 19-20). That is why the beggarly philosopher, in the end, reduces all the sophistication not to insights into the mystery of being, but to dubious ideas of the earthly arrangement of people.
“Among other things, I said,” says the prisoner, “that all power is violence against people and that the time will come when there will be no power of either Caesars or any other power. Man will pass into the realm of truth and justice, where there will be no no power is needed." Realm of truth? "But what is truth?" - only one can ask after Pilate, having heard enough of such speeches. "What is truth? - Headache?" There is nothing original in this interpretation of the teachings of Christ. Yeshe Belinsky, in his notorious letter to Gogol, asserted about Christ: "He was the first to proclaim to people the doctrine of freedom, equality and fraternity, and by martyrdom sealed, affirmed the truth of his doctrine." The idea, as Belinsky himself pointed out, goes back to the materialism of the Enlightenment, that is, to the very era when the "wisdom of this world" was deified and raised to the absolute. Was it worth it to fence the garden in order to return to the same thing?
At the same time, one can guess the objections of the fans of the novel: the main goal of the author was an artistic interpretation of the character of Pilate as a psychological and social type, his aesthetic study. Undoubtedly, Pilate attracts the novelist in that long story. Pilate is generally one of the central figures of the novel. He is larger, more significant as a person than Yeshua. His image is distinguished by greater integrity and artistic completeness. It's like that. But why was it blasphemous to distort the Gospel for that? There was some meaning...
But that is perceived by the majority of our reading public as insignificant. The literary merits of the novel, as it were, atone for any blasphemy, make it even invisible - especially since the public is usually set, if not strictly atheistically, then in the spirit of religious liberalism, in which every point of view on anything is recognized as having a legitimate right to exist and be listed in the category of truth. . Yeshua, who elevated the headache of the fifth procurator of Judea to the rank of Truth, thereby provided a kind of ideological justification for the possibility of an arbitrarily large number of ideas-truths of this level. In addition, Bulgakov's Yeshua provides anyone who only wishes with a tickling opportunity to look down on the One before Whom the church bows as before the Son of God. The ease of free treatment of the Savior Himself, which is provided by the novel "Master and Margarita" (a refined spiritual perversion of aesthetically jaded snobs), we must agree, is also worth something! For a relativistically tuned consciousness, there is no blasphemy here.
The impression of the reliability of the story about the events of two thousand years ago is provided in Bulgakov's novel by the truthfulness of the critical coverage of modern reality, with all the grotesqueness of the author's techniques. The revealing pathos of the novel is recognized as its undoubted moral and artistic value. But here it should be noted that (no matter how offensive and even insulting it may seem to the later researchers of Bulgakov), this topic itself, one might say, was opened and closed at the same time by the first critical reviews of the novel, and above all by the detailed articles by V. Lakshin (Roman M. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" // Novy Mir. 1968. No. 6) and I. Vinogradov (Testament of the Master // Questions of Literature. 1968. No. 6). It will hardly be possible to say anything new: Bulgakov in his novel gave a murderous critique of the world of improper existence, exposed, ridiculed, incinerated with the fire of caustic indignation to nec plus ultra (extreme limits - ed.) the vanity and insignificance of the new Soviet cultural philistinism.
The spirit of the novel, which is opposed to the official culture, as well as the tragic fate of its author, as well as the tragic initial fate of the work itself, helped to raise the height created by M. Bulgakov's pen to a height that is difficult to reach for any critical judgment. Everything was curiously complicated by the fact that for a significant part of our semi-educated readers the novel "The Master and Margarita" for a long time remained almost the only source from which it was possible to draw information about the events of the Gospel. The authenticity of Bulgakov's narration was checked by him himself - the situation is sad. The encroachment on the holiness of Christ itself turned into a kind of intellectual shrine. The thought of Archbishop John (Shakhovsky) helps to understand the phenomenon of Bulgakov’s masterpiece: “One of the tricks of spiritual evil is to mix concepts, tangle the threads of different spiritual fortresses into one ball and thereby create the impression of spiritual organicity of what is not organic and even anti-organic in relation to the human spirit ". The truth of the denunciation of social evil and the truth of one's own suffering created a protective armor for the blasphemous untruth of the novel The Master and Margarita. For the untruth that declared itself the only Truth. “Everything is not true there,” the author seems to say, understanding the Holy Scriptures. "In general, I begin to fear that this confusion will continue for a very long time." The truth, however, reveals itself through the inspired insights of the Master, as evidenced with certainty, claiming our unconditional trust - Satan. (They will say: this is a convention. Let us object: every convention has its limits, beyond which it unconditionally reflects a certain idea, a very definite one).
Bulgakov's novel is dedicated not to Yeshua at all, and not even primarily to the Master himself with his Margarita, but to Satan. Woland is the undoubted protagonist of the work, his image is a kind of energy node of the entire complex compositional structure of the novel. Woland's supremacy is initially affirmed by the epigraph to the first part: "I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good."
Satan acts in the world only insofar as he is allowed to do so by the permission of the Almighty. But everything that happens according to the will of the Creator cannot be evil, it is directed to the good of His creation, it is, by whatever measure you measure, an expression of the supreme justice of the Lord. "The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is in all His works" (Ps. 144:9). (...)
The idea of Woland is equated in the philosophy of the novel with the idea of Christ. “Would you be so kind to think about the question,” the spirit of darkness instructs the stupid evangelist from above, “what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it? After all, shadows are obtained from objects and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But there are shadows from trees and living beings. Do you want to tear off the whole globe, blowing away all the trees and all life from it because of your fantasy of enjoying the naked light? You are stupid." Without speaking directly, Bulgakov pushes the reader to the conjecture that Woland and Yeshua are two equal entities ruling the world. In the system of artistic images of the novel, Woland completely surpasses Yeshua - which is very important for any literary work.
But at the same time, a strange paradox awaits the reader in the novel: despite all the talk of evil, Satan acts rather contrary to his own nature. Woland here is the unconditional guarantor of justice, the creator of goodness, the righteous judge for people, which attracts the reader's ardent sympathy. Woland is the most charming character in the novel, much more sympathetic than the weak-willed Yeshua. He actively intervenes in all events and always acts for the good - from instructive exhortations to the thieving Annushka to saving the Master's manuscript from oblivion. Not from God - from Woland justice pours out on the world. The incompetent Yeshua cannot give people anything except abstract, spiritually relaxing discussions about not quite intelligible good, and except for vague promises of the coming kingdom of truth. Woland with a strong will directs the actions of people, guided by the concepts of very specific justice and at the same time experiencing genuine sympathy for people, even sympathy.
And here it is important: even the direct envoy of Christ, Levi Matthew, "beseechingly turns" to Woland. The consciousness of his rightness allows Satan to treat with a measure of arrogance the failed evangelist disciple, as if undeservedly arrogating to himself the right to be near Christ. Woland persistently emphasizes from the very beginning: it was he who was next to Jesus at the time of the most important events, "unrighteously" reflected in the Gospel. But why does he insist on his testimony so insistently? And was it not he who directed the inspired insight of the Master, even if he did not suspect it? And he saved the manuscript that had been put on fire. "Manuscripts do not burn" - this diabolical lie once delighted admirers of Bulgakov's novel (after all, one so wanted to believe in it!). They are burning. But what saved this one? Why did Satan recreate a burnt manuscript from oblivion? Why is the distorted story of the Savior included in the novel at all?
It has long been said that it is especially desirable for the devil that everyone should think that he does not exist. This is what the novel asserts. That is, he does not exist at all, but he does not act as a seducer, a sower of evil. A champion of justice - who is not flattered to appear in people's opinion? Devilish lies become a hundred times more dangerous.
Discussing this feature of Woland, the critic I. Vinogradov made an unusually important conclusion regarding the "strange" behavior of Satan: he does not lead anyone into temptation, does not plant evil, does not actively affirm untruth (which seems to be characteristic of the devil), because there is no no need. According to Bulgakov's concept, evil acts in the world without demonic efforts, it is immanent in the world, which is why Woland can only observe the natural course of things. It is difficult to say whether the critic (following the writer) was consciously guided by religious dogma, but objectively (albeit vaguely) he revealed something important: Bulgakov's understanding of the world, at best, is based on the Catholic teaching about the imperfection of the primordial nature of man, which requires active external influence to correct it. . In fact, Woland is engaged in such external influence, punishing guilty sinners. The introduction of temptation into the world is not required of him at all: the world is already tempted from the very beginning. Or is it imperfect from the start? By whom is he tempted, if not by Satan? Who made the mistake of making the world imperfect? Or was it not a mistake, but a conscious initial calculation? Bulgakov's novel openly provokes these questions, although he does not answer them. The reader must make up his own mind.
V. Lakshin drew attention to the other side of the same problem: “In the beautiful and human truth of Yeshua, there was no place for the punishment of evil, for the idea of retribution. It is difficult for Bulgakov to come to terms with this, and that is why he so needs Woland, removed from evil and, as it were, received in return from the forces of good a punishing sword in his hands. Critics noticed right away: Yeshua took from his gospel Prototype only a word, but not a deed. The matter is Woland's prerogative. But then ... let's make a conclusion on our own ... Yeshua and Woland - nothing more than two peculiar hypostases of Christ? Yes, in the novel "The Master and Margarita" Woland and Yeshua are the personification of Bulgakov's understanding of the two essential principles that determined the earthly path of Christ. What is this - a kind of shadow of Manichaeism?
But be that as it may, the paradox of the system of artistic images of the novel was expressed in the fact that it was Woland-Satan who embodied at least some religious idea of being, while Yeshua - and all critics and researchers agreed on this - is an exclusively social character, partly philosophical, but no more. One can only repeat after Lakshin: "We see here a human drama and a drama of ideas. /.../ In the extraordinary and legendary, what is humanly understandable, real and accessible, but no less essential: not faith, but truth and beauty" .
Of course, at the end of the 60s it was very tempting: as if abstractly discussing the events of the Gospel, to touch upon the painful and acute issues of our time, to conduct a risky, nerve-wracking debate about the vital. Bulgakov's Pilate provided rich material for formidable philippines about cowardice, opportunism, indulgence in evil and untruth - something that still sounds topical today. (By the way: didn’t Bulgakov laugh slyly at his future critics: after all, Yeshua did not utter those words denouncing cowardice at all - they were invented by Aphranius and Levi Matthew, who did not understand anything in his teaching). The pathos of a critic seeking retribution is understandable. But the malice of the day remains only malice. "The wisdom of this world" was not able to rise to the level of Christ. His word is understood on a different level, on the level of faith.
However, "not faith, but the truth" attracts critics in the story of Yeshua. Significant is the very opposition of the two most important spiritual principles, which are indistinguishable at the religious level. But at the lower levels, the meaning of the "gospel" chapters of the novel cannot be understood, the work remains incomprehensible.
Of course, critics and researchers who take positivist-pragmatic positions should not be embarrassed. There is no religious level for them at all. The reasoning of I. Vinogradov is indicative: for him, "Bulgakov's Yeshua is an extremely accurate reading of this legend (i.e., the" legend "about Christ. - M.D.), its meaning is a reading, in some ways much deeper and more accurate than the gospel presentation of it."
Yes, from the standpoint of ordinary consciousness, by human standards - ignorance informs Yeshua's behavior with pathos of heroic fearlessness, a romantic impulse to "truth", contempt for danger. Christ's "knowledge" of His fate, as it were (according to the critic), devalues His feat (what kind of feat is there, if you want it - you don't want it, but what is destined will come true). But the lofty religious meaning of what happened thus eludes our understanding. The incomprehensible mystery of Divine self-sacrifice is the highest example of humility, the acceptance of earthly death not for the sake of abstract truth, but for the salvation of mankind - of course, for an atheistic consciousness, these are only empty "religious fictions", but one must at least admit that even as a pure idea these values much more important and significant than any romantic impulse.
Woland's true goal is easily seen: the desacralization of the earthly path of the Son (the son of God) - which, judging by the very first reviews of critics, he succeeds in completely. But not just an ordinary deception of critics and readers was conceived by Satan, creating a novel about Yeshua - and it is Woland, by no means the Master, who is the true author of the literary opus about Yeshua and Pilate. In vain the Master is self-absorbedly amazed at how accurately he "guessed" the ancient events. Such books are "not guessed" - they are inspired from outside. And if the Holy Scriptures are inspired by God, then the source of inspiration for the novel about Yeshua is also easily visible. However, the main part of the story and without any camouflage belongs to Woland, the Master's text becomes only a continuation of the satanic fabrication. The narrative of Satan is included by Bulgakov in the complex mystical system of the entire novel The Master and Margarita. Actually, the name obscures the true meaning of the work. Each of these two plays a special role in the action for which Woland arrives in Moscow. If you take an unbiased look, then the content of the novel, it is easy to see, is not the history of the Master, not his literary misadventures, not even the relationship with Margarita (all that is secondary), but the story of one of Satan's visits to earth: with the beginning of it, the novel begins, and its end also ends. The master appears to the reader only in chapter 13, Margarita, and even later, as Woland needs them. For what purpose does Woland visit Moscow? To give here your next "great ball". But Satan did not just plan to dance.
N. K. Gavryushin, who studied the "liturgical motives" of Bulgakov's novel, convincingly substantiated the most important conclusion: the "great ball" and all the preparations for it constitute nothing more than a satanic anti-liturgy, a "black mass."
Under the piercing cry of "Hallelujah!" Woland's associates rage at that ball. All the events of The Master and Margarita are drawn to this semantic center of the work. Already in the opening scene - at the Patriarch's Ponds - preparations for the "ball" begin, a kind of "black proskomidia". The death of Berlioz turns out to be not at all absurdly accidental, but is included in the magic circle of the satanic mystery: his severed head, then stolen from the coffin, turns into a chalice, from which, at the end of the ball, the transformed Woland and Margarita "commune" (here is one of the manifestations of anti-liturgy - the transubstantiation of blood into wine, sacrament inside out). The bloodless sacrifice of the Divine Liturgy is replaced here by a bloody sacrifice (the murder of Baron Meigel).
The gospel is read at the Liturgy in the church. For the "black mass" a different text is needed. The novel created by the Master becomes nothing more than a "gospel from Satan", skillfully included in the compositional structure of the work on anti-liturgy. That's what the Master's manuscript was saved for. That is why the image of the Savior is slandered and distorted. The master fulfilled what Satan intended for him.
Margarita, the beloved of the Master, has a different role: due to some special magical properties inherent in her, she becomes a source of that energy that turns out to be necessary for the entire demonic world at a certain moment of its existence - for which that "ball" is started. If the meaning of the Divine Liturgy is in the Eucharistic union with Christ, in the strengthening of the spiritual forces of a person, then the anti-liturgy gives strength to the inhabitants of the underworld. Not only an innumerable gathering of sinners, but Woland-Satan himself, as it were, acquires new power here, a symbol of which is the change in his appearance at the moment of "communion", and then the complete "transformation" of Satan and his retinue in the night, "when all come together abacus".
Thus, a certain mystical action takes place before the reader: the completion of one and the beginning of a new cycle in the development of the transcendental foundations of the universe, about which a person can only be given a hint - nothing more.
Bulgakov's novel becomes such a "hint". Many sources for such a "hint" have already been identified: here are Masonic teachings, and theosophy, and Gnosticism, and Judaic motives ... The worldview of the author of The Master and Margarita turned out to be very eclectic. But the main thing - its anti-Christian orientation - is beyond doubt. No wonder Bulgakov so carefully disguised the true content, the deep meaning of his novel, entertaining the reader's attention with side details. The dark mysticism of the work, in addition to the will and consciousness, penetrates into the soul of a person - and who will undertake to calculate the possible destruction that can be produced in it by that?
M. M. Dunaev
In this article, we will consider the novel that Bulgakov created in 1940 - "The Master and Margarita". A summary of this work will be brought to your attention. You will find a description of the main events of the novel, as well as an analysis of the work "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov.
Two story lines
There are two storylines in this work that develop independently. In the first of them, the action takes place in Moscow in May (several full moon days) in the 30s of the 20th century. In the second storyline, the action also takes place in May, but already in Jerusalem (Yershalaim) about 2000 years ago - at the beginning of a new era. The heads of the first line echo those of the second.
The appearance of Woland
One day Woland appears in Moscow, who presents himself as an expert on black magic, but in fact he is Satan. A strange retinue accompanies Woland: this is Hella, the vampire witch, Koroviev, a cheeky type, also known by the nickname Fagot, the sinister and gloomy Azazello and Behemoth, a cheerful fat man, appearing mainly in the form of a huge black cat.
Death of Berlioz
On the Patriarch's Ponds, the editor of a magazine, Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, and Ivan Bezdomny, the poet who created an anti-religious work about Jesus Christ, are the first to meet with Woland. This "foreigner" intervenes in their conversation, saying that Christ really existed. As proof that there is something beyond human understanding, he predicts that a Komsomol girl will cut off Berlioz's head. Mikhail Alexandrovich, in front of Ivan, immediately falls under a tram, driven by a Komsomol member, and really cuts off his head. The homeless man tries unsuccessfully to pursue a new acquaintance, and then, having come to Massolit, he talks about what happened so intricately that he is taken to a psychiatric clinic, where he meets the Master, the protagonist of the novel.
Likhodeev in Yalta
Arriving at the apartment on Sadovaya Street, occupied by the late Berliz together with Stepan Likhodeev, director of the Variety Theatre, Woland, finding Likhodeev in a severe hangover, shows them a signed contract for performing in the theater. After that, he escorts Stepan out of the apartment, and he strangely ends up in Yalta.
Incident in the house of Nikanor Ivanovich
Bulgakov's work "The Master and Margarita" continues with the fact that the barefoot Nikanor Ivanovich, chairman of the partnership of the house, comes to the apartment occupied by Woland and finds Koroviev there, who asks to rent this room to him, since Berlioz has died, and Likhodeev is now in Yalta. After lengthy persuasion, Nikanor Ivanovich agrees and receives another 400 rubles in excess of the fee stipulated by the contract. He hides them in the ventilation. After that, they come to Nikanor Ivanovich to arrest him for possession of currency, since the rubles somehow turned into dollars, and he, in turn, ends up in the Stravinsky clinic.
At the same time, Rimsky, the financial director of the Variety, and Varenukha, the administrator, are trying to find Likhodeev by phone and are perplexed, reading his telegrams from Yalta with a request to confirm his identity and send money, since he was abandoned here by the hypnotist Woland. Rimsky, deciding that he is joking, sends Varenukh to take the telegrams "where necessary", but the administrator fails to do this: the cat Behemoth and Azazello, grabbing him by the arms, take him to the aforementioned apartment, and Varenukh loses his senses from the kiss of naked Gella.
Woland's representation
What happens next in the novel that Bulgakov created (The Master and Margarita)? A summary of what happened next is as follows. Woland's performance begins on the Variety stage in the evening. Bassoon causes a rain of money with a shot from a pistol, and the audience catches the falling money. Then there is a "ladies' shop" where you can get dressed for free. There is a line forming at the store. But at the end of the performance, the gold pieces turn into pieces of paper, and the clothes disappear without a trace, forcing women in their underwear to rush through the streets.
After the performance, Rimsky lingers in his office, and Varenukha, turned into a vampire by a kiss from Gella, comes to him. Noticing that he does not cast a shadow, the director tries to run away, frightened, but Gella comes to the rescue. She is trying to open the latch on the window, while Varenukha is on guard at the door. Morning comes, and with the first cock crow the guests disappear. Rimsky, instantly gray-haired, rushes to the station and leaves for Leningrad.
Master's Tale
Ivan Bezdomny, having met the Master in the clinic, tells how he met the foreigner who killed Berlioz. The master says that he met with Satan, and tells Ivan about himself. Beloved Margarita gave him that name. A historian by education, this man worked in a museum, but suddenly he won 100 thousand rubles - a huge amount. He rented two rooms located in the basement of a small house, left his job and began to write a novel about Pontius Pilate. The work was almost finished, but then he accidentally met Margarita on the street, and a feeling immediately flared up between them.
Margarita was married to a rich man, lived on the Arbat in a mansion, but did not love her husband. She came to the Master every day. They were happy. When the novel was finally completed, the author took it to the magazine, but they refused to publish the work. Only an excerpt was published, and soon devastating articles about it appeared, written by critics Lavrovich, Latunsky and Ariman. Then the Master fell ill. One night he threw his creation into the oven, but Margarita snatched the last stack of sheets from the fire. She took the manuscript with her and went to her husband to say goodbye to him and reunite with the Master forever in the morning, but a quarter of an hour after the girl left, there was a knock on the writer's window. On a winter night, returning home a few months later, he found that the rooms were already occupied, and went to this clinic, where he has been living without a name for the fourth month.
Meeting Margarita with Azazello
Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita continues with Margarita waking up with the feeling that something is about to happen. She sorts through the sheets of the manuscript, after which she goes for a walk. Here Azazello sits down to her and informs that some foreigner invites the girl to visit. She agrees, as she hopes to learn something about the Master. Margarita rubs her body with a special cream in the evening and becomes invisible, after which she flies out the window. She arranges a rout in the dwelling of the critic Latunsky. Then Azazelo meets the girl and escorts her to the apartment, where she meets Woland's retinue and himself. Woland asks Margarita to be queen at his ball. As a reward, he promises to grant the girl's wish.
Margarita - queen at Woland's ball
How does Mikhail Bulgakov describe further events? The Master and Margarita is a very multi-layered novel, and the story continues with a full moon ball that begins at midnight. Criminals are invited to it, who come in tailcoats, and women are naked. Margarita greets them, offering her knee and hand for a kiss. The ball is over, and Woland asks what she wants to receive as a reward. Margarita asks her lover, and he immediately appears in a hospital gown. The girl asks Satan to return them to the house where they were so happy.
Meanwhile, some Moscow institution is interested in strange events taking place in the city. It becomes clear that they are all the work of one gang headed by a magician, and the traces lead to Woland's apartment.
Pontius Pilate's decision
We continue to consider the work that Bulgakov created ("The Master and Margarita"). The summary of the novel is the following further events. Pontius Pilate interrogates Yeshua Ha-Nozri in the palace of King Herod, who was sentenced to death by the court for insulting the power of Caesar. Pilate had to approve it. Interrogating the accused, he realizes that he is not dealing with a robber, but with a wandering philosopher who preaches justice and truth. But Pontius cannot simply let go of a person who is accused of acts against Caesar, therefore he approves the verdict. Then he turns to Kaifa, the high priest, who, in honor of Easter, can release one of the four sentenced to death. Pilate asks to release Ha-Notsri. But he refuses him and releases Bar-Rabban. There are three crosses on Bald Mountain, and the condemned are crucified on them. After the execution, only the former tax collector, Levi Matthew, a disciple of Yeshua, remains there. The executioner slaughters the condemned, and then a downpour suddenly falls.
The procurator summons the head of the secret service, Aphranius, and instructs him to kill Judas, who received a reward for allowing Ha-Notsri to be arrested in his house. Niza, a young woman, meets him in the city and sets up a date, where unknown people stab Judas with a knife and take away the money. Aphranius tells Pilate that Judas was stabbed to death and the money was planted in the high priest's house.
Matthew Levi is brought before Pilate. He shows him the tapes of Yeshua's sermons. The procurator reads in them that the gravest sin is cowardice.
Woland and his retinue leaving Moscow
We continue to describe the events of the work "The Master and Margarita" (Bulgakov). We return to Moscow. Woland and his retinue say goodbye to the city. Then Levi Matvey appears with a proposal to take the Master to him. Woland asks why he is not taken into the light. Levi replies that the Master did not deserve light, only peace. After some time, Azazello comes to the house to his beloved and brings wine - a gift from Satan. After drinking it, the heroes fall unconscious. At the same moment, there is turmoil in the clinic - the patient died, and on the Arbat in the mansion a young woman suddenly falls to the floor.
The novel that Bulgakov created (The Master and Margarita) is coming to an end. Black horses carry away Woland with his retinue, and with them the main characters. Woland tells the writer that the character of his novel has been sitting on this site for 2000 years, seeing the lunar road in a dream and wanting to walk along it. Master shouts: "Free!" And the city with the garden lights up above the abyss, and the lunar road leads to it, along which the procurator runs.
A wonderful work created by Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita ends as follows. In Moscow, the investigation into the case of one gang is still going on for a long time, but there are no results. The psychiatrists conclude that the gang members are powerful hypnotists. A few years later, the events are forgotten, and only the poet Bezdomny, now Professor Ponyrev Ivan Nikolaevich, every year on the full moon sits on the bench where he met Woland, and then, returning home, sees the same dream in which the Master, Margarita come to him , Yeshua and Pontius Pilate.
The meaning of the work
Bulgakov's work "The Master and Margarita" amazes readers even today, since even now it is impossible to find an analogue of a novel of this level of skill. Modern writers fail to note the reason for such popularity of the work, to single out its fundamental, main motive. This novel is often called unprecedented for all world literature.
The main intention of the author
So, we examined the novel, its summary. The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov also needs to be analyzed. What is the main intention of the author? The story takes place in two eras: the time of the life of Jesus Christ and the contemporary period of the Soviet Union. Bulgakov paradoxically combines these very different eras, draws deep parallels between them.
The master, the main character, himself creates a novel about Yeshua, Judas, Pontius Pilate. Mikhail Afanasyevich unfolds phantasmagoria throughout the work. The events of the present turn out to be connected in an amazing way with what has changed humanity forever. It is difficult to single out a specific theme to which the work of M. Bulgakov devoted. "The Master and Margarita" touches upon many sacramental questions that are eternal for art. This, of course, is the theme of love, tragic and unconditional, the meaning of life, truth and justice, unconsciousness and madness. It cannot be said that the author directly reveals these issues, he only creates a symbolic integral system, which is rather difficult to interpret.
The main characters are so non-standard that only their images can be the reason for a detailed analysis of the concept of the work created by M. Bulgakov. "The Master and Margarita" is saturated with ideological and philosophical themes. This gives rise to the versatility of the semantic content of the novel written by Bulgakov. "Master and Margarita" problems, as you can see, affect very large-scale and significant.
Out of time
You can interpret the main idea in different ways. The Master and Ga-Notsri are two peculiar messiahs whose activities take place in different eras. But the history of the Master's life is not so simple, his divine, bright art is also associated with dark forces, because Margarita turns to Woland to help the Master.
The novel that this hero creates is a sacred and amazing story, but the writers of the Soviet era refuse to publish it, because they do not want to recognize it as worthy. Woland helps his beloved to restore justice and returns to the author the work he had previously burned.
Thanks to mythological devices and a fantastic plot, Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" shows eternal human values. Therefore, this novel is a story outside of culture and era.
Cinema showed great interest in the creation that Bulgakov created. "The Master and Margarita" is a film that exists in several versions: 1971, 1972, 2005. In 2005, a popular mini-series of 10 episodes directed by Vladimir Bortko was released.
This concludes the analysis of the work created by Bulgakov ("The Master and Margarita"). Our essay does not cover all the topics in detail, we only tried to briefly highlight them. This plan can serve as the basis for writing your own essay on this novel.