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Lesson objectives: to talk about the meaning of the novel, its fate; show the features of the genre and composition.
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The novel "The Master and Margarita" is the main one in Bulgakov's work. He wrote it from 1928 to 1940, until his death, made 8 (!) editions, and there is a problem which edition should be considered final. This is a "sunset" novel, paid for by the author's life. In the forties, for obvious reasons, it could not be printed.
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The appearance of the novel in the magazine Moskva (No. 11 for 1966 and No. 1 for 1967), even in a truncated form, produced a stunning effect on readers and baffled critics. They had to evaluate something completely unusual, which had no analogues in modern Soviet literature either in terms of the formulation of problems, or in the nature of their solution, or in the images of the characters, or in style. It was only in the 1980s that Bulgakov began to actively publish and study his work. The novel caused and causes sharp controversy, various hypotheses, interpretations. Until now, it brings surprises and surprises with its inexhaustibility. "The Master and Margarita" does not fit into the traditional, familiar patterns.
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The genre of the novel. You can call it everyday (pictures of Moscow life of the twenties and thirties are reproduced), and fantastic, and philosophical, and autobiographical, and love-lyrical, and satirical. A novel of many genres and many planes. Everything is closely intertwined, as in life. In "The Master and Margarita" "almost all the existing genres and literary trends in the world were combined very organically" B.V. Sokolov Roman - myth Philosophical novel Roman - mystery (connected with the divine)
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The composition of the novel is also unusual. This is a "novel within a novel" - 32 chapters. The fate of Bulgakov himself is reflected in the fate of the Master, the fate of the Master is reflected in the fate of his hero Yeshua. 2 layers of time biblical modern Bulgakov 30 years of the 1st century new era 30 years of the XX century Events take place before Easter A series of reflections creates the impression of a perspective that goes into the depths of historical time, into eternity.
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What time period does the novel take place in? Moscow events from the time of the meeting and dispute between Berlioz and Bezdomny with a foreigner and before Woland and his retinue, together with the Master and his beloved, leave the city, take place in just four days. In this short time, many events take place: fantastic, tragic, and comic. The heroes of the novel are revealed from an unexpected side, each reveals something that was implicit. Woland's gang, as it were, provokes people to actions, exposes their essence (sometimes it exposes them in the literal sense, as happened in the Variety.
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The gospel chapters, which take place over the course of one day, take us almost two thousand years ago, to a world that has not gone away forever, but exists in parallel with the modern one. And, of course, it is more real. Realism is achieved, first of all, in a special way of storytelling. - Who is the narrator of the story of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua?
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This story is given from several points of view, which gives credibility to what is happening. Chapter 2 "Pontius Pilate" is narrated to the atheists Berlioz and Bezdomny Woland. Ivan Bezdomny saw the events of Chapter 16 "Execution" in a dream, in a lunatic asylum. In chapter 19, Azazello gives an incredulous Margarita an excerpt from the Master's manuscript: “The darkness that came from mediterranean sea, covered the city hated by the procurator ... ". In chapter 25, “How the procurator tried to save Judas from Kiriath,” Margarita reads the resurrected manuscripts in the Master’s basement, continues reading (chapter 26 “Burial” and ends it already at the beginning of chapter 27. The objectivity of what is happening is emphasized by braces - repetitive sentences that end one chapter and begin next.)
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From the point of view of the composition, it is also unusual that the hero, the Master, appears only in the 13th chapter (“The Appearance of the Hero”). This is one of the many mysteries of Bulgakov, to the resolution of which we will try to get closer. Bulgakov consciously, sometimes defiantly, emphasizes the autobiographical nature of the image of the Master. An atmosphere of persecution, a complete renunciation of literary and public life, lack of livelihood, constant expectation of arrest, denunciation articles, devotion and selflessness of the beloved woman - all this was experienced by both Bulgakov himself and his hero. The fate of Master-Bulgakov is natural. In the country of "victorious socialism" there is no place for freedom of creativity, there is only a planned "social order". The master has no place in this world - neither as a writer, nor as a thinker, nor as a person. Bulgakov diagnoses a society where it is determined whether a person is a writer by a piece of cardboard.
Mysticism, riddles, supernatural powers - everything is so frightening, but terribly alluring. It's outside human consciousness, so people tend to grab onto any piece of information about this hidden world. storehouse mystical stories- novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"
The mystical novel has a complicated history. The loud and familiar name "Master and Margarita" was by no means the only and, moreover, not the first option. The birth of the first pages of the novel dates back to 1928-1929, and the end in the final chapter was put only 12 years later.
The legendary work has gone through several editions. It is worth noting that the main characters of the final version - the Master, Margarita - did not appear in the first of them. By the will of fate, it was destroyed by the hands of the author. The second version of the novel gave life to the already mentioned heroes and gave Woland devoted assistants. And in the third edition, the names of these characters came to the fore, namely in the title of the novel.
The plot lines of the work were constantly changing, Bulgakov did not stop making adjustments and changing the fate of his heroes until his death. The novel was published only in 1966, the last wife of Bulgakov, Elena, is responsible for the gift to the world of this sensational work. The author tried to perpetuate her features in the image of Margarita, and, apparently, the endless gratitude to his wife became the reason for the final name change, where it was precisely love line plot.
Genre, direction
Mikhail Bulgakov is considered a mystical writer, almost each of his works carries a riddle. The highlight of this work is the presence of a novel within a novel. The story described by Bulgakov is a mystical, modernist novel. But the novel about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua included in it, the author of which is the Master, does not contain a drop of mysticism.
Composition
As already mentioned by the Wise Litrecon, The Master and Margarita is a novel within a novel. This means that the plot is divided into two layers: the story that the reader discovers, and the work of the hero from this story, who introduces new characters, paints different landscapes, times and major events.
So, the main outline of the story is the author's story about Soviet Moscow and the arrival of the devil, who wants to hold a ball in the city. Along the way, he surveys the changes that have taken place in people, and allows his retinue to frolic enough, punishing Muscovites for their vices. But the path of the dark forces leads them to meet Margarita, who is the mistress of the Master - the writer who created the novel about Pontius Pilate. This is the second layer of the story: Yeshua is put on trial by the procurator and sentenced to death for bold sermons about the frailty of power. This line develops in parallel with what Woland's servants do in Moscow. Both plots merge when Satan shows the Master his hero - the Procurator, who is still waiting for forgiveness from Yeshua. The writer ends his torment and thus ends his story.
essence
The novel "The Master and Margarita" is so comprehensive that it does not let the reader get bored on any page. A huge number of storylines, interactions and events in which you can easily get confused keep the reader attentive throughout the work.
Already on the first pages of the novel, we are faced with the punishment of the unbelieving Berlioz, who entered into an argument with the personification of Satan. Further, as if on knurled, there were revelations and disappearances of sinful people, for example, the director of the Variety Theater - Styopa Likhodeev.
The reader's acquaintance with the Master took place in a psychiatric hospital, in which he was kept with Ivan Bezdomny, who ended up there after the death of his friend Berlioz. There the Master tells about his novel about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua. Outside the mental hospital, the Master is looking for his beloved Margarita. In order to save her lover, she makes a deal with the devil, namely, she becomes the queen of Satan's Great Ball. Woland fulfills his promise, and the lovers are reunited. At the end of the work, two novels are mixed - Bulgakov and the Master - Woland meets Levi Matvey, who gave the Master peace. On the last pages of the book, all the characters leave, dissolving into the expanse of heaven. Here's what the book is about.
Main characters and their characteristics
Perhaps the main characters are Woland, the Master and Margarita.
- Woland's mission in this novel - to reveal the vices of people and punish for their sins. His exposure of mere mortals knows no bounds. The main motive of Satan is to give everyone according to his faith. By the way, he does not act alone. The retinue is laid for the king - the demon Azazello, the devil Koroviev-Fagot, the jester cat Behemoth (a petty demon) beloved by everyone and their muse - Hella (vampire). The retinue is responsible for the humorous component of the novel: they laugh and mock their victims.
- Master- his name remains a mystery to the reader. Everything that Bulgakov told us about him - in the past he was a historian, worked in a museum and, having won a large sum in the lottery, took up literature. The author intentionally does not introduce additional information about the Master in order to focus on him as a writer, author of the novel about Pontius Pilate and, of course, the lover of the beautiful Margarita. By nature, this is an absent-minded and impressionable person not of this world, completely unaware of the life and customs of the people around him. He is very helpless and vulnerable, easily falls for deception. But at the same time, he has an extraordinary mind. He is well educated, knows ancient and modern languages, he has an impressive erudition in many matters. To write a book, he studied an entire library.
- margarita- a real muse for his Master. This is a married lady, the wife of a wealthy official, but their marriage has long been a formality. Having met a truly loved one, the woman devoted all her feelings and thoughts to him. She supported him and instilled inspiration in him and even intended to leave the hateful house with her husband and housekeeper, exchange security and contentment for a half-starved life in a basement on the Arbat. But the Master suddenly disappeared, and the heroine began to look for him. The novel repeatedly emphasizes her selflessness, her willingness to do anything for the sake of love. For most of the novel, she fights to save the Master. According to Bulgakov, Margarita is "the ideal wife of a genius."
If you did not have enough description or characteristics of any hero, write about it in the comments - we will add it.
Themes
The novel "The Master and Margarita" is amazing in every sense. It has a place for philosophy, love and even satire.
- The main theme is the confrontation between good and evil. The philosophy of the struggle between these extremes and justice can be seen on almost every page of the novel.
- One cannot belittle the importance of the love theme personified by the Master and Margarita. Strength, struggle for feelings, selflessness - using their example, one can say that these are synonyms for the word “love”.
- On the pages of the novel there is also a place for human vices, vividly shown by Woland. This is greed, hypocrisy, cowardice, ignorance, selfishness, etc. He never ceases to mock sinful people and arrange for them a kind of repentance.
If you are particularly interested in any topic that we have not voiced, let us know in the comments - we will add it.
Problems
The novel raises many problems: philosophical, social and even political. We will analyze only the main ones, but if it seems to you that something is missing, write in the comments, and this “something” will appear in the article.
- The main problem is cowardice. Its author called the main vice. Pilate did not have the courage to stand up for the innocent, the Master did not have the courage to fight for his convictions, and only Margarita plucked up the courage and rescued her beloved man from trouble. The presence of cowardice, according to Bulgakov, changed the course of world history. It also doomed the inhabitants of the USSR to vegetate under the yoke of tyranny. Many did not like to live in anticipation of a black funnel, but fear won common sense and the people reconciled. In a word, this quality prevents us from living, loving and creating.
- The issue of love is also important: its influence on a person and the essence of this feeling. Bulgakov showed that love is not a fairy tale in which everything is fine, it is a constant struggle, a willingness to do anything for the sake of a loved one. The Master and Margarita turned their lives upside down after they met. Margarita had to give up wealth, stability and comfort for the sake of the Master, to make a deal with the devil in order to save him, and not once did she doubt her actions. For overcoming difficult trials on the way to each other, the heroes are rewarded with eternal rest.
- The problem of faith also intertwines the entire novel, it lies in the message of Woland: "To each will be rewarded according to his faith." The author prompts the reader to think about what he believes in and why? From this follows the overarching problem of good and evil. It was most vividly reflected in the described appearance of Muscovites, so greedy, greedy and mercantile, who receive retribution for their vices from Satan himself.
the main idea
The main idea of the novel is the reader's definition of the concepts of good and evil, faith and love, courage and cowardice, vice and virtue. Bulgakov tried to show that everything is completely different from what we used to imagine. For many people, the meanings of these key concepts are confused and distorted due to the influence of a corrupting and stupefying ideology, due to difficult life circumstances, due to a lack of intelligence and experience. For example, in Soviet society, even denunciation of family members and friends was considered a good deed, and yet it led to death, long-term imprisonment and the destruction of a person's life. But citizens like Magarych willingly used this opportunity to solve their "housing problem". Or, for example, conformism and the desire to please the authorities are shameful qualities, but in the USSR and even now many people saw and still see benefits in this and do not hesitate to demonstrate them. Thus, the author encourages readers to think about the true state of things, about the meaning, motives and consequences of their own actions. With a strict analysis, it will become clear that we ourselves are responsible for those world troubles and upheavals that we do not like, that without Woland's stick and carrot, we ourselves do not want to change for the better.
The meaning of the book and the "moral of this fable" lies in the need to prioritize in life: to learn courage and true love, rebel against obsession with the "housing issue". If in the novel Woland came to Moscow, then in life you need to let him into your head in order to conduct a diabolical audit of opportunities, guidelines and aspirations.
Criticism
Bulgakov could hardly count on the understanding of this novel by his contemporaries. But he knew one thing for sure - the novel would live. "The Master and Margarita" is still turning heads for more than the first generation of readers, which means it is the object of constant criticism.
V.Ya. Lakshin, for example, accuses Bulgakov of a lack of religious consciousness, but praises his morality. P.V. Palievsky notes the courage of Bulgakov, who was one of the first to break the stereotype of respect for the devil by ridiculing him. There are many such opinions, but they only confirm the idea laid down by the writer: "Manuscripts do not burn!".
Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" was published in 1966-1967 and immediately brought world fame to the writer. The author himself defines the genre of the work as a novel, but genre uniqueness still causes controversy among writers. It is defined as a myth novel, a philosophical novel, a mystical novel, and so on. This is so because the novel combines all genres at once, even those that cannot exist together. The narrative of the novel is directed to the future, the content is both psychologically and philosophically reliable, the problems raised in the novel are eternal. The main idea of the novel is the struggle between good and evil, the concepts of inseparable and eternal. The composition of the novel is as original as the genre - a novel within a novel. One - about the fate of the Master, the other about Pontius Pilate. On the one hand, they are opposed to each other, on the other hand, they seem to form a single whole. This novel in the novel collects global problems and contradictions. The masters are concerned with the same problems as Pontius Pilate. At the end of the novel, you can see how Moscow connects with Yershalaim, that is, one novel is combined with another and goes into one storyline. Reading the work, we are immediately in two dimensions: the 30s of the twentieth century and the 30s of the 1st century AD. We see that the events took place in the same month and a few days before Easter, only with an interval of 1900 years, which proves a deep connection between the Moscow and Yershalaim chapters. The action of the novel, which is separated by almost two thousand years, harmonizes with each other, and their fight against evil, the search for truth and creativity connect them. And yet the main character of the novel is love. Love is what captivates the reader and makes the work a novel by genre. In general, the theme of love is the most beloved for the writer. According to the author, all the happiness that has fallen in a person's life comes from their love. Love elevates a person above the world, comprehends the spiritual. Such is the feeling of the Master and Margarita. That is why the author included these names in the title. Margarita completely surrenders to love, and for the sake of saving the Master, she sells her soul to the devil, taking on a huge sin. Nevertheless, the author makes her the most positive heroine of the novel and takes her side himself. Using the example of Margarita Bulgakov showed that each person should make his own personal choice, without asking for help from higher powers, do not expect favors from life, a person must make his own destiny.
The novel contains three storylines: philosophical - Yeshua and Pontius Pilate, love - Master and Margarita, mystical and satirical - Woland, all his retinue and Muscovites. These lines are closely connected with Woland's image. He feels free both in the biblical and in the contemporary writer's time.
The plot of the novel is the scene at the Patriarch's Ponds, where Berlioz and Ivan Homeless argue with a stranger about the existence of God. To Woland’s question about “who governs human life and the whole order on earth,” if there is no God, Ivan Bezdomny answers: “The man himself governs.” The author reveals the relativity of human knowledge and at the same time affirms the responsibility of a person for his own destiny. What is true the author narrates in the biblical chapters that are the center of the novel. move modern life lies in the Master's story of Pontius Pilate.
Another feature of this work is that it is autobiographical. In the image of the Master, we recognize Bulgakov himself, and in the image of Margarita - his beloved woman, his wife Elena Sergeevna. Perhaps that is why we perceive the characters as real personalities. We sympathize with them, we worry, we put ourselves in their place. The reader seems to move along the artistic ladder of the work, improving along with the characters. The storylines end, connecting at one point - in Eternity. Such a peculiar composition of the novel makes it interesting for the reader, and most importantly - an immortal work.
3.1 Woland
Woland is a character in the novel The Master and Margarita, who leads the world of otherworldly forces. Woland is the devil, Satan, "the prince of darkness", "the spirit of evil and the lord of shadows" (all these definitions are found in the text of the novel). Woland is largely focused on Mephistopheles "Faust" by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. The name Woland itself is taken from a poem by Goethe, where it is mentioned only once and is usually omitted in Russian translations. In the edition of 1929 - 1930. Woland's name was reproduced entirely in Latin on his business card: "Dr Theodor Voland". In the final text, Bulgakov abandoned the Latin alphabet. It should be noted that in early editions Bulgakov tried the names Azazello and Veliar for the future Woland.
The portrait of Woland is shown before the start of the Great Ball “Two eyes rested on Margarita's face. The right one with a golden spark at the bottom, drilling anyone to the bottom of the soul, and the left one is empty and black, sort of like a narrow needle's eye, like an exit to a bottomless well of all darkness and shadows. Woland's face was slanted to the side, the right corner of his mouth was pulled down, deep wrinkles parallel to sharp eyebrows were cut on his high bald forehead. The skin on Woland's face seemed to be burned forever by a tan.
Bulgakov hides the true face of Woland only at the very beginning of the novel, in order to intrigue the reader, and then he directly declares through the lips of the Master and Woland himself that the devil has definitely arrived at the Patriarch's. The image of Woland in relation to the view of the devil, which was defended in the book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth” by the philosopher and theologian P.A. Florensky: “Sin is fruitless, because it is not life, but death. And death drags out its ghostly existence only life and about Life, feeds on Life and exists only insofar as Life gives it nourishment from itself. What death has is only the life it has defiled. Even at the "black mass", in the very nest of the devil, the Devil and his worshipers could not think of anything other than blasphemously parodying the mysteries of the liturgy, doing everything in reverse. What a void! What begging! What flat "depths"!
This is another proof that there is neither in reality, nor even in thought, either Byron's, or Lermontov's, or Vrubel's Devil - majestic and regal, but there is only a miserable "monkey of God" ... In the edition of 1929-1930. Woland was still such a “monkey” in many ways, possessing a number of reducing features. However, in the final text of The Master and Margarita, Woland became different, "majestic and regal", close to the traditions of Lord Byron, Goethe, Lermontov.
Woland gives different explanations of the goals of his stay in Moscow to different characters in contact with him. He tells Berlioz and Bezdomny that he has come to study the found manuscripts of Gebert Avrilaksky. Woland explains his visit to the employees of the Variety Theater with the intention to perform a session of black magic. After the scandalous session, Satan told the barman Sokov that he simply wanted to “see Muscovites en masse, and it was most convenient to do this in the theater.” Margarita Koroviev-Fagot, before the start of the Great Ball with Satan, informs that the purpose of the visit of Woland and his retinue to Moscow is to hold this ball, whose hostess should bear the name Margarita and be of royal blood.
Woland has many faces, as befits the devil, and in conversations with different people puts on different masks. At the same time, Woland’s omniscience of Satan is completely preserved: he and his people are well aware of both the past and future lives of those with whom they come into contact, they also know the text of the Master’s novel, which literally coincides with the “Woland gospel”, thus what was told unlucky writers at the Patriarchs.
Woland's unconventionality is that, being a devil, he is endowed with some obvious attributes of God. The dialectical unity, the complementarity of good and evil is most closely revealed in the words of Woland, addressed to Levi Matthew, who refused to wish health to the "spirit of evil and the lord of shadows": -for your fantasy to enjoy the naked light? You are stupid".
In Bulgakov, Woland literally revives the burnt novel of the Master; product artistic creativity, preserved only in the head of the creator, materializes again, turns into a tangible thing.
Woland is the bearer of fate, this is connected with a long tradition in Russian literature, linking fate, fate, fate not with God, but with the devil. This was most clearly manifested by Lermontov in the story "The Fatalist" (1841) - an integral part of the novel "A Hero of Our Time". For Bulgakov, Woland personifies the fate that punishes Berlioz, Sokov and others who violate the norms of Christian morality. This is the first devil in world literature, punishing for non-compliance with the commandments of Christ.
3.2 Koroviev-Fagot
This character is the eldest of the demons subordinate to Woland, a devil and a knight, who appears to Muscovites as an interpreter with a foreign professor and a former regent of the church choir.
The surname Koroviev is modeled on the surname of the character in the story A.K. Tolstoy's "Ghoul" (1841) State Councilor Telyaev, who turns out to be a knight and a vampire. In addition, in the story of F.M. Dostoevsky's "The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants" has a character by the name of Korovkin, very similar to our hero. His second name comes from the name of the musical instrument bassoon, invented by an Italian monk. Koroviev-Fagot has some resemblance to a bassoon - a long thin tube folded in three. Bulgakov's character is thin, tall and in imaginary subservience, it seems, is ready to triple in front of his interlocutor (in order to calmly harm him later).
Here is his portrait: “... a transparent citizen of a strange appearance, On a small head a jockey cap, a short checkered jacket ... a citizen a sazhen tall, but narrow in the shoulders, incredibly thin, and a physiognomy, please note, mocking”; "... his antennae are like chicken feathers, his eyes are small, ironic and half-drunk."
Koroviev-Fagot is a devil that has arisen from the sultry Moscow air (an unprecedented heat for May at the time of its appearance is one of the traditional signs of approaching evil spirits). Woland's henchman, only out of necessity, puts on various masks-masks: a drunken regent, a gaer, a clever swindler, a rogue translator with a famous foreigner, etc. Only in the last flight Koroviev-Fagot becomes who he really is - a gloomy demon, a knight Bassoon, no worse than his master, who knows the price of human weaknesses and virtues.
3.3 Azazello
Probably, Bulgakov was attracted by the combination in one character of the ability to seduce and kill. It is precisely for the insidious seducer that we take Azazello Margarita during their first meeting in the Alexander Garden: “This neighbor turned out to be short, fiery red, with a fang, in starched underwear, in a striped solid suit, in patent leather shoes and with a bowler hat on his head. "Absolutely a robber's mug!" Margaret thought.
But the main function of Azazello in the novel is associated with violence. He throws Styopa Likhodeev from Moscow to Yalta, expels Uncle Berlioz from the Bad Apartment, and kills the traitor Baron Meigel with a revolver.
Azazello also invented the cream, which he gives to Margherita. The magic cream not only makes the heroine invisible and able to fly, but also endows her with a new, witchy beauty.
In the epilogue of the novel, this fallen angel appears before us in a new guise: “Flying on the side of everyone, shining with the steel of armor, Azazello. The moon changed his face too. The ridiculous, ugly fang disappeared without a trace, and the squint turned out to be false. Both Azazello's eyes were the same, empty and black, and his face was white and cold. Now Azazello flew in his real form, like a demon of a waterless desert, a demon-killer.
3.4 Behemoth
This werewolf cat and Satan's favorite jester is perhaps the most amusing and memorable of Woland's retinue.
The author of The Master and Margarita got information about the Behemoth from the book by M.A. Orlov "The History of Man's Relations with the Devil" (1904), extracts from which have been preserved in the Bulgakov archive. There, in particular, the case of the French abbess, who lived in the 17th century, was described. and possessed by seven devils, the fifth demon being Behemoth. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant's head, with a trunk and fangs. His hands were of a human style, and a huge belly, a short tail and thick hind legs, like a hippopotamus, reminded him of his name.
Bulgakov's Behemoth became a huge black werewolf cat, since it is black cats that are traditionally considered to be associated with evil spirits. This is how we see him for the first time: “... on a jeweler’s pouffe, in a cheeky pose, a third person collapsed, namely, a terrible black cat with a glass of vodka in one paw and a fork, on which he managed to pry a pickled mushroom, in the other.”
Behemoth in the demonological tradition is the demon of the desires of the stomach. Hence his extraordinary gluttony, especially in Torgsin, when he indiscriminately swallows everything edible.
The shootout between Behemoth and the detectives in apartment No. 50, his chess duel with Woland, the shooting contest with Azazello - all these are purely humorous scenes, very funny and even, to some extent, relieving the sharpness of those worldly, moral and philosophical problems that the novel poses reader.
In the last flight, the reincarnation of this merry joker is very unusual (like most of the plot moves in this science fiction novel): “Night tore off the fluffy tail of the Behemoth, tore off his hair and scattered it to shreds across the swamps. The one who was the cat that entertained the prince of darkness, now turned out to be a thin young man, a page demon, the best jester that ever existed in the world.
Gella is a member of Woland's retinue, a female vampire: “I recommend my maid Gella. Quick, understanding and there is no such service that she would not be able to provide.
The name "Gella" Bulgakov learned from the article "Sorcery" encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus and Efron, where it was noted that on Lesbos this name was used to call untimely dead girls who became vampires after death.
The green-eyed beauty Gella moves freely through the air, thereby gaining resemblance to a witch. Character traits behavior of vampires - clicking teeth and smacking Bulgakov, perhaps borrowed from the story of A.K. Tolstoy "Ghoul". There, a vampire girl with a kiss turns her lover into a vampire - hence, obviously, the kiss of Gella, fatal for Varenukha.
Hella, the only one from Woland's retinue, is absent from the scene of the last flight. Most likely, Bulgakov deliberately removed her as the youngest member of the retinue, performing only auxiliary functions in the Variety Theater, and in the Bad Apartment, and at the Great Ball with Satan. Vampires are traditionally the lowest category of evil spirits. In addition, Gella would have no one to turn into on the last flight - when the night "exposed all the deceptions", she could only become a dead girl again.
The Great Ball with Satan is a ball given by Woland in the Bad Apartment in the novel The Master and Margarita on the endlessly lasting midnight of Friday, May 3, 1929.
According to the memoirs of E.S. Bulgakova, in describing the ball, used impressions from a reception at the American embassy in Moscow on April 22, 1935. US Ambassador William Bullitt invited the writer and his wife to this solemn event. From the memoirs: “Once a year, Bullitt gave big receptions on the occasion of the national holiday. Writers were also invited. Once we received such an invitation. In the hall with columns they dance, from the choir - multi-colored spotlights. Behind the net - birds - mass - flutter. Orchestra ordered from Stockholm. M.A. I was most captivated by the conductor's tailcoat - to the toes.
Dinner in a dining room specially attached for this ball to the embassy mansion, on separate tables. In the corners of the dining room there are small wagons, on them are goats, lambs, cubs. On the walls of the cage with roosters. At about three o'clock the harmonicas played and the roosters began to sing. Russ style. Mass of tulips, roses - from Holland. On the top floor there is a barbeque. Red roses, red French wine. Below - everywhere champagne, cigarettes. About six we got into their embassy Cadillac and drove home. They brought a huge bouquet of tulips from the secretary of the embassy.
For a semi-disgraced writer like Bulgakov, a reception at the American embassy is an almost unbelievable event, comparable to a ball at Satan's. Soviet graphic propaganda of those years often depicted "American imperialism" in the guise of a devil. In Satan's Great Ball, real-life signs of the American ambassador's residence are combined with details and images of a distinctly literary origin.
In order to fit the Great Ball at Satan's into the Bad Apartment, it was necessary to expand it to supernatural dimensions. As Koroviev-Fagot explains, "for those who are well acquainted with the fifth dimension, it costs nothing to push the room to the desired limits." This brings to mind the novel The Invisible Man (1897) by HG Wells. Bulgakov goes further than the English science fiction writer, increasing the number of dimensions from the rather traditional four to five. In the fifth dimension, giant halls become visible, where the Great Ball is held by Satan, and the participants of the ball, on the contrary, are invisible to the surrounding people, including the OGPU agents on duty at the door of the Bad Apartment.
Having abundantly decorated the ballrooms with roses, Bulgakov took into account the complex and multifaceted symbolism associated with this flower. In the cultural tradition of many nations, roses are the personification of both mourning and love and purity. With this in mind, the roses at Satan's Great Ball can be seen both as a symbol of Margarita's love for the Master and as a harbinger of their imminent death. Roses here - and an allegory of Christ, the memory of the shed blood, they have long been included in the symbolism of the Catholic Church.
The election of Margarita as the queen of the Great Ball by Satan and her assimilation of one of the French queens who lived in the 16th century is associated with the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. Bulgakov's extracts from the entries in this dictionary have been preserved, dedicated to two French queens who bore the name of Margaret - Navarre and Valois. Both historical Margaritas patronized writers and poets, and Bulgakov's Margarita turns out to be connected with the ingenious Master, whom she seeks to extract from the hospital after the Great Ball with Satan.
Another source of the Great Ball with Satan is the description of the ball in the Mikhailovsky Palace, given in the book of Marquis Astolf de Custine "Russia in 1839" (1843) (this work was also used by Bulgakov when creating the film script " Dead Souls”): “The large gallery, intended for dancing, was decorated with exceptional luxury. One and a half thousand tubs and pots with the rarest flowers formed a fragrant bosquet. At the end of the hall, in the dense shade of exotic plants, one could see a pool from which a stream of a fountain was constantly escaping. Splashes of water, illuminated by bright lights, sparkled like diamond dust particles and refreshed the air ... It is difficult to imagine the magnificence of this picture. I completely lost track of where you are. All borders disappeared, everything was full of light, gold, colors, reflections and a bewitching, magical illusion. Margarita sees a similar picture at Satan's Great Ball, feeling herself in a tropical forest, among hundreds of flowers and colorful fountains, and listening to the music of the best orchestras in the world.
Depicting the Great Ball at Satan's, Bulgakov also took into account the traditions of Russian symbolism, in particular the symphony of the poet A. Bely and L. Andreev's play "The Life of a Man".
The great ball with Satan can also be imagined as a figment of the imagination of Margarita, who is about to commit suicide. Many eminent noblemen-criminals approach her as the queen of the ball, but Margarita prefers the brilliant writer Master to everyone. Note that the ball is preceded by a session of black magic in the circus-like Variety Theater, where in the finale the musicians play a march (and in the works of this genre, the role of drums is always great).
It should be noted that at Satan's Great Ball there are also musical geniuses who are not directly connected in their work with the motives of Satanism. Margarita meets here the "king of waltzes" the Austrian composer Johann Strauss, the Belgian violinist and composer Henri Vietana, and the best musicians of the world play in the orchestra. Thus, Bulgakov illustrates the idea that every talent is somehow from the devil.
The fact that a string of murderers, poisoners, executioners, harlots and procuresses passes in front of Margarita at the Great Ball at Satan's is not at all accidental. Bulgakov's heroine is tormented by betrayal of her husband and, albeit subconsciously, puts her act on a par with the greatest crimes of the past and present. The abundance of poisoners and poisoners, real and imaginary, is a reflection in Margarita's brain of the thought of a possible suicide with the Master using poison. At the same time, their subsequent poisoning, carried out by Azazello, can be considered imaginary, and not real, since historically all male poisoners at Satan's Great Ball are imaginary poisoners.
But Bulgakov also leaves an alternative possibility: the Great Ball with Satan and all the events associated with it occur only in the sick imagination of Margarita, tormented by the lack of news about the Master and guilt before her husband and subconsciously thinking about suicide. The author of The Master and Margarita offers a similar alternative explanation in relation to the Moscow adventures of Satan and his henchmen in the epilogue of the novel, making it clear that it is far from exhausting what is happening. Also, any rational explanation of Satan's Great Ball, according to the author's intention, can in no way be complete.
One of the striking paradoxes of the novel lies in the fact that, having done a pretty good job in Moscow, Woland's gang at the same time restored decency and honesty to life and severely punished evil and untruth, thus serving, as it were, to affirm thousand-year-old moral precepts. Woland destroys the routine and punishes the vulgar and opportunistic. And if even his retinue appears in the guise of petty demons, not indifferent to arson, destruction and dirty tricks, then Messire himself invariably retains some majesty. He observes Bulgakov's Moscow as a researcher, setting up a scientific experiment, as if he really was sent on a business trip from the heavenly office. At the beginning of the book, fooling Berlioz, he claims that he arrived in Moscow to study the manuscripts of Herbert Avrilaksky - he is playing the role of a scientist, experimenter, magician. And his powers are great: he has the privilege of a punishing act, which is in no way with the hands of the highest contemplative good.
It is easier to resort to the services of such a Woland and Margarita, who despaired of justice. “Of course, when people are completely robbed, like you and me,” she shares with the Master, “they seek salvation from an otherworldly power.” Bulgakov's Margarita in a mirror-inverted form varies the story of Faust. Faust sold his soul to the devil for the sake of a passion for knowledge and betrayed Margarita's love. In the novel, Margarita is ready to make a deal with Woland and becomes a witch for the sake of love and loyalty to the Master.
You can also notice that the story of Margarita from Faust has much in common with the story of Bulgakov's Frida. But in Bulgakov, the motive of mercy and love in the image of Margarita is solved differently than in Goethe's poem, where before the power of love "the nature of Satan surrendered ... he did not bear her prick, mercy overcame", and Faust was released into the world. In The Master and Margarita, Margarita shows mercy to Frida, and not Woland himself. Love does not affect the nature of Satan in any way, for in fact fate ingenious Master predetermined by Woland in advance. Satan's plan coincides with what he asks to reward Master Yeshua, and Margarita here is part of this award.
In the epilogue of the novel on the wings of clouds, Satan and his retinue leave Moscow, taking with them to their eternal world, to the last refuge of the Master and Margarita. But those who have deprived the Master normal life in Moscow, hunted down and forced to seek refuge with the devil - they stayed.
In one of the editions of the novel last words Woland are as follows: “... He has a courageous face, he does his job right, and in general it’s all over here. It is time!" Woland orders his retinue to leave Moscow, because he is sure that this city and country will remain in his power as long as "a man with a courageous face" dominates here. This man is Stalin. It is obvious that such a direct hint that the "great leader and teacher" enjoys the favor of the devil, especially frightened the listeners of the last chapters of the novel on May 15, 1939. Interestingly, this place no less frightened the subsequent publishers of Bulgakov's novel. Although the quoted fragment was contained in the last typescript of The Master and Margarita and was not canceled by subsequent editing, it did not make it into the main text in any of the editions carried out so far.
A lot of literature has been written about Bulgakov's novel by researchers from different countries and, probably, a lot more will be written. Among those who interpreted the book, there are those who were inclined to read it as an encrypted political treatise: they tried to guess Stalin in the figure of Woland and even painted his retinue according to specific political roles - in Azazello, Koroviev they tried to guess Trotsky, Zinoviev, etc.
Other interpreters of the novel saw in it an apologia for the devil, admiring the gloomy power, some kind of special, almost painful predilection of the author for the dark elements of being. At the same time, they were annoyed at the author’s irreligiousness, his unsteadiness in the dogmas of Orthodoxy, which allowed him to compose the dubious “Gospel of Woland.” Others, quite atheistically disposed, reproached the writer for the “black romance” of defeat, capitulation to the world of evil.
In fact, Bulgakov called himself a "mystical writer", but this mysticism did not darken the mind and did not intimidate the reader. Woland and his retinue performed not harmless and often vengeful miracles in the novel, like magicians in good fairy tale: with them, in essence, there was an invisibility hat, a flying carpet and a sword - a treasurer, a punishing sword.
One of the main targets of Woland's cleansing work is the complacency of the mind, especially the atheistic mind, which, along with faith in God, sweeps away the whole area of the mysterious and mysterious. Indulging in free fantasy with pleasure, describing the tricks, jokes and flights of Azazello, Koroviev and the cat, admiring the gloomy power of Woland, the author chuckles at the certainty that all forms of life can be calculated and planned, and the prosperity and happiness of people does not cost anything to arrange - you just have to want .
1) Beznosov E.L., “Belongs to eternity”, Moscow Ast “Olympus”, 1996
2) "Bulgakov Encyclopedia" compiled by B.V. Sokolov - M. "Lokid", "Myth", 1997
3) Bulgakov M.A. , "Notes on the Cuffs", Moscow, "Fiction Literature", 1988
4) Bulgakov M.A., “The Master and Margarita”, Moscow Ast “Olympus”, 1996
5) Boborykin V.G., "Mikhail Bulgakov" - M. "Enlightenment", 1991
6) Boborykin V.G., “Literature at school”, Moscow, “Enlightenment”, 1991
7) “Creativity of Mikhail Bulgakov: Research. Materials. Bibliography. Book. 1" ed. ON THE. Groznova and A.I. Pavlovsky. L., "Science", 1991
8) Lakshin V.Ya., Introductory article to the publication “M.A. Bulgakov Collected works in 5 volumes. M., " Fiction", 1990
9) Yankovskaya L., “ creative path M. Bulgakov”, Moscow, “Soviet Writer”, 1983
The novel by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", to which the writer devoted 12 years of his life, is rightfully considered a real gem of world literature. The work became the pinnacle of Bulgakov's work, in which he touched on the eternal themes of good and evil, love and betrayal, faith and disbelief, life and death. In The Master and Margarita, the most complete analysis is needed, since the novel is distinguished by its special depth and complexity. A detailed plan for analyzing the work "The Master and Margarita" will allow students in grade 11 to better prepare for the literature lesson.
Brief analysis
Year of writing– 1928-1940
History of creation– Goethe's tragedy "Faust" became a source of inspiration for the writer. The original records were destroyed by Bulkagov himself, but later restored. They served as the basis for writing the novel, on which Mikhail Afanasyevich worked for 12 years.
Subject– The central theme of the novel is the confrontation between good and evil.
Composition- The composition of The Master and Margarita is very complex - it is a double novel or a novel within a novel, in which the storylines of the Master and Pontius Pilate run parallel to each other.
Genre- Novel.
Direction- Realism.
History of creation
For the first time, the writer thought about a future novel in the mid-20s. The impetus for writing it was the brilliant work of the German poet Goethe "Faust".
It is known that the first sketches for the novel were made in 1928, but neither the Master nor Margarita appeared in them. The central characters in the original version were Jesus and Woland. There were also many variations of the title of the work, and they all revolved around the mystical hero: "Black Magician", "Prince of Darkness", "Engineer's Hoof", "Woland's Tour". Only shortly before his death, after numerous revisions and meticulous criticism, Bulgakov renamed his novel The Master and Margarita.
In 1930, extremely dissatisfied with what was written, Mikhail Afanasyevich burned 160 pages of the manuscript. But two years later, having miraculously found the surviving sheets, the writer restored his literary work and set to work again. Interestingly, the original version of the novel was restored and published 60 years later. In the novel called "The Great Chancellor" there was neither Margarita nor the Master, and the gospel chapters were reduced to one - "The Gospel of Judas."
Bulgakov worked on a work that became the crown of all his work, right up to the last days of his life. He endlessly made corrections, redid chapters, added new characters, corrected their characters.
In 1940, the writer fell seriously ill, and was forced to dictate the lines of the novel to his faithful wife, Elena. After Bulgakov's death, she tried to publish the novel, but for the first time the work was published only in 1966.
Subject
"The Master and Margarita" is complex and incredibly multifaceted literary work, in which the author presented many different topics to the reader's judgment: love, religion, the sinful nature of man, betrayal. But, in fact, all of them are only parts of a complex mosaic, a skillful frame main theme - the eternal confrontation between good and evil. Moreover, each theme is tied to its heroes and intertwined with other characters in the novel.
Central theme The theme of the novel, of course, is the all-consuming, all-forgiving love of the Master and Margarita, who is able to survive all difficulties and trials. By introducing these characters, Bulgakov incredibly enriched his work, giving it a completely different, more earthly and understandable meaning to the reader.
Equally important in the novel is problem of choice, which is especially vividly shown by the example of the relationship between Pontius Pilate and Yeshua. According to the author, the most terrible vice is cowardice, which caused the death of an innocent preacher and a life sentence for Pilate.
In The Master and Margarita, the writer vividly and convincingly shows issues human vices , which do not depend on religion, social status or time era. Throughout the novel, the main characters have to deal with moral issues, choose one way or another for themselves.
Main idea works is a harmonious interaction of the forces of good and evil. The struggle between them is as old as the world, and will continue as long as people are alive. Good cannot exist without evil, just as evil cannot exist without good. The idea of the eternal confrontation of these forces permeates the entire work of the writer, who sees the main task of man in choosing the right path.
Composition
The composition of the novel is distinguished by its complexity and originality. Essentially, this novel within a novel: one of them tells about Pontius Pilate, the second - about the writer. At first it seems that there is nothing in common between them, however, in the course of the novel, the relationship between the two storylines becomes apparent.
At the end of the work Moscow and ancient city Yershalaim unite, and events take place simultaneously in two dimensions. Moreover, they occur in the same month, a few days before Easter, but only in one "novel" - in the 30s of the twentieth century, and in the second - in the 30s of the new era.
philosophical line in the novel it is represented by Pilate and Yeshua, the love one - by the Master and Margarita. However, the work contains a separate story line filled to the brim with mysticism and satire. Its main characters are Muscovites and Woland's retinue, represented by incredibly bright and charismatic characters.
At the end of the novel, the storylines are connected at a single point for all - Eternity. Such a peculiar composition of the work constantly keeps the reader in suspense, causing genuine interest in the plot.
Main characters
Genre
The genre of The Master and Margarita is very difficult to define - this work is so many-sided. Most often it is defined as a fantastic, philosophical and satirical novel. However, it is easy to find signs of other literary genres in it: realism is intertwined with fantasy, mysticism is adjacent to philosophy. Such an unusual literary fusion makes Bulgakov's work truly unique, which has no analogues in domestic or foreign literature.
Artwork test
Analysis Rating
Average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 3927.
In the story "Heart of a Dog" Bulgakov described an outstanding scientist (Professor Preobrazhensky) as the main character and his scientific activity, and from specific scientific problems eugenics (the science of improving the human race) moved on to the philosophical problems of the revolutionary and evolutionary development of human knowledge, human society and nature in general. In The Master and Margarita, this scheme is repeated, but the main character is a writer who has written only one novel, and even that one has not finished. For all that, he can be called outstanding because he devoted his novel to the fundamental moral issues of mankind, and did not succumb to the pressure of the authorities, which called on (and with the help of literary associations forced) cultural figures to sing the successes of the proletarian state. From questions that concern creative people (freedom of creativity, publicity, the problem of choice), Bulgakov in the novel moved on to the philosophical problems of good and evil, conscience and fate, to the question of the meaning of life and death, therefore, the socio-philosophical content in The Master and Margarita , in comparison with the story "Heart of a Dog", is distinguished by greater depth and significance due to the many episodes and characters.
According to the genre "The Master and Margarita" - a novel. Genre originality it can be revealed as follows: a satirical, socio-philosophical, fantastic novel within a novel. The novel is social, as it describes life in the USSR in last years NEP, that is, at the end of the 20s of the XX century. It is impossible to more accurately date the time of action in the work: the author deliberately (or not on purpose) combines facts from different times on the pages of the work: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior has not yet been destroyed (1931), but passports have already been introduced (1932), and Muscovites travel in trolleybuses (1934). The scene of the novel is philistine Moscow, not ministerial, not academic, not party-government, but precisely communal. in the capital for three days Woland and his entourage study the mores of ordinary (average) Soviet people, who, according to the plan of communist ideologists, should be new type citizens free from social diseases and shortcomings, inherent in people class society.
The life of Moscow inhabitants is described satirically. Evil spirits punish the thieves, careerists, schemers who "flourished luxuriantly" on the "healthy soil of Soviet society." The scene-visit of Koroviev and Behemoth to the Smolensky market in the Torgsin store is wonderfully presented - Bulgakov considers this institution a bright sign of the times. Petty demons in passing expose a swindler who pretends to be a foreigner and deliberately ruin the entire store, where a simple Soviet citizen (due to the lack of currency and gold things) cannot go (2, 28). Woland punishes a cunning businessman who conducts deft frauds with living space, a barmaid from the Variety Theater Andrei Fokich Sokov (1, 18), a bribe-taker and chairman of the house committee Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy (1, 9) and others. Bulgakov very wittily portrays Woland's performance in the theater (1, 12), when new beautiful outfits are offered free of charge to all interested ladies in exchange for their own modest clothes. At first, the audience does not believe in such a miracle, but very quickly greed and the opportunity to receive unexpected gifts win over distrust. The crowd rushes to the stage, where everyone gets an outfit to their liking. The performance ends funny and instructive: after the performance, the ladies, seduced by gifts of evil spirits, turn out to be naked, and Woland sums up the whole performance: “... people are like people. They love money, but it has always been ... (...) in general, they resemble the former ones, the housing problem only spoiled them ... ”(1, 12). In other words, the new Soviet man, about whom the authorities talk so much, has not yet been brought up in the country of the Soviets.
In parallel with the satirical depiction of crooks of various stripes, the author gives a description of the spiritual life of Soviet society. It is clear that Bulgakov was primarily interested in the literary life of Moscow in the late 1920s. Outstanding representatives The new creative intelligentsia in the novel are the semi-literate but very self-confident Ivan Bezdomny, who considers himself a poet, and the literary official Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, who educates and inspires young members of MASSOLIT (in different editions of the novel, the literary association located in the house of Griboyedov's aunt is designated Massolit, then MASSOLIT). satirical image workers of proletarian culture is based on the fact that their high conceit and pretensions do not correspond to their "creative" achievements. Officials from the Lightweight Spectacles and Entertainment Commission are shown simply grotesquely (1, 17): the costume calmly replaces the head of the Commission Prokhor Petrovich and signs official documents, and petty clerks sing folk songs during working hours (the same “serious” occupation in the evenings was Domkomovsky activists are busy in the story "Heart of a Dog").
Next to such "creative" workers, the author places a tragic hero - a real writer. As Bulgakov said half-jokingly, half-seriously, the Moscow chapters can be briefly recounted as follows: the story of a writer who ends up in a lunatic asylum for writing the truth in his novel and hoping that it will be published. The fate of the Master (Bulgakov calls his hero “master” in the novel, but in critical literature another designation for this hero is accepted - the Master, which is used in this analysis) proves that in literary life Soviet Union the dictatorship of mediocrity and functionaries like Berlioz reigns, who allow themselves to rudely interfere in the work of a real writer. But he cannot fight them, because there is no freedom of creativity in the USSR, although the most proletarian writers and leaders talk about it from the highest tribunes. Against independent, independent writers, the state uses its entire repressive apparatus, which is shown by the example of the Master.
The philosophical content of the novel is intertwined with the social, scenes from the ancient era alternate with a description of Soviet reality. The philosophical moral content of the work is revealed from the relationship between Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea, the all-powerful governor of Rome, and Yeshua Ha-Notsri, a poor preacher. It can be argued that Bulgakov sees in the clash of these heroes a manifestation of the eternal confrontation between the ideas of good and evil. In the same principled confrontation with state system enters the Master, who lives in Moscow in the late 20s of the XX century. In the philosophical content of the novel, the author offers his own solution to the "eternal" moral issues: what is life, what is the main thing in life, can a person, alone opposing the whole society, be right, etc.? Separately, in the novel there is a problem of choice associated with the actions of the procurator and Yeshua, who profess opposite life principles.
The procurator understands from a personal conversation with Yeshua that the accused is not a criminal at all. However, the Jewish high priest Kaifa comes to Pontius Pilate and convinces the Roman governor that Yeshua is a terrible rebel-instigator who preaches heresy and pushes the people to confusion. Kaifa demands the execution of Yeshua. Therefore, Pontius Pilate is faced with a dilemma: to execute an innocent and calm the crowd, or to spare this innocent, but prepare for a popular revolt, which the Jewish priests themselves can provoke. In other words, Pilate is faced with a choice: to act according to his conscience or against his conscience, guided by momentary interests.
Yeshua does not face such a dilemma. He could have chosen: to speak the truth and thereby help people, or to renounce the truth and be saved from crucifixion, but he had already made his choice. The procurator asks him what is the worst thing in the world, and gets the answer - cowardice. Yeshua himself demonstrates by his behavior that he is not afraid of anything. The scene of interrogation by Pontius Pilate testifies that Bulgakov, like his hero, a wandering philosopher, considers truth to be the main value in life. God (higher justice) is on the side of a physically weak person if he stands for the truth, therefore a beaten, beggar, lonely philosopher wins a moral victory over the procurator and makes him painfully experience a cowardly act committed by Pilate just out of cowardice. This problem worried Bulgakov himself both as a writer and as a person. Living in a state that he considered unjust, he had to decide for himself: serve such a state or oppose it, the latter could be paid for, as happened with Yeshua and the Master. Still, Bulgakov, like his heroes, chose confrontation, and the writer’s work itself became bold act, even the feat of an honest man.
Elements of fantasy allow Bulgakov to more fully reveal the ideological concept of the work. Some literary scholars see in The Master and Margarita features that bring the novel closer to the menippea - literary genre, in which laughter and an adventurous plot create a situation of testing high philosophical ideas. A distinctive feature of the menippea is fantasy (Satan's ball, the last refuge of the Master and Margarita), it overturns the usual system of values, gives rise to a special type of behavior of heroes, free from any conventions (Ivan Bezdomny in a madhouse, Margarita in the role of a witch).
The demonic beginning in the images of Woland and his retinue performs a complex function in the novel: these characters are capable of doing not only evil, but also good. In Bulgakov's novel, Woland opposes the earthly world of crooks and unscrupulous functionaries from art, that is, he defends justice (!); he sympathizes with the Master and Margarita, helps separated lovers to connect and settle accounts with the traitor (Aloisy Mogarych) and the persecutor (critic Latunsky). But even Woland is powerless to save the Master from the tragic denouement of life (full disappointment and spiritual devastation). In this image of Satan, of course, the European tradition was reflected, which comes from Goethe's Mephistopheles, as indicated by the epigraph to the novel from Faust: "I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good ...". Perhaps that is why Bulgakov's Woland and the petty demons turned out to be sympathetic, even generous, and their witty tricks prove the extraordinary ingenuity of the writer.
"The Master and Margarita" is a novel within a novel, as one work intertwines chapters from the Master's novel about Pontius Pilate and chapters in which the Master himself is the main character, that is, "ancient" and "Moscow" chapters. By comparing two different novels within one, Bulgakov expresses his philosophy of history: the ideological and moral crisis of the ancient world led to the emergence of a new religion - Christianity and Christian morality, the crisis European civilization XX century - to social revolutions and atheism, that is, to the rejection of Christianity. Thus, humanity moves in a vicious circle and after two thousand years (without one century) returns to the same thing from which it once left. The main thing that attracts Bulgakov's attention is, of course, the depiction of contemporary Soviet reality. Reflecting on the present and the fate of the writer in modern world, the author resorts to an analogy - to the depiction of the historical situation (the life and execution of the philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri in Judea at the beginning of a new era).
So, the novel "The Master and Margarita" in terms of genre is very complex work. The description of the life of Moscow during the NEP period, that is, the social content, is intertwined with scenes in ancient Judea, that is, with philosophical content. Bulgakov satirically ridicules various Soviet swindlers, semi-literate poets, cynical functionaries from culture and literature, and useless officials. At the same time, he sympathetically tells the story of love and suffering of the Master and Margarita. So satire and lyrics are combined in the novel. Along with the realistic depiction of Muscovites, Bulgakov puts fantastic images of Woland and his retinue into the novel. All these diverse scenes and image techniques are combined in one work through a complex composition - a novel within a novel.
At first glance, The Master and Margarita is a fascinating novel about the fantastic tricks of evil spirits in Moscow, a witty novel that caustically ridicules the mores of the NEP life. However, behind the external amusement and gaiety in the work, one can see a deep philosophical content - a discussion about the struggle between good and evil in the human soul and in the history of mankind. Bulgakov's novel is often compared with the great novel by J.-W. Goethe "Faust", and not only because of the image of Woland, who is both similar and unlike Mephistopheles. Another thing is important: the similarity of the two novels is expressed in the humanistic idea. Goethe's novel originated as philosophical reflection European world after the Great french revolution 1789; Bulgakov in his novel comprehends the fate of Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. Both Goethe and Bulgakov argue that the main value of a person is in his striving for goodness and creativity. Both authors oppose these qualities to chaos in the human soul and destructive processes in society. However, periods of chaos and destruction in history are always replaced by creation. That is why Goethe's Mephistopheles never receives the soul of Faust, and Bulgakov's Master, unable to withstand the struggle with the surrounding spiritless world, burns his novel, but does not harden, retains in his soul love for Margarita, sympathy for Ivan Bezdomny, sympathy for Pontius Pilate, who dreams of forgiveness .
