"Master and Margarita" was written in 1928-1940. and published with censored cuts in the magazine Moscow No. 11 for 1966 and No. 1 for 1967. The book without cuts was published in Paris in 1967 and in 1973 in the USSR.

The idea of ​​the novel arose in the mid-1920s, in 1929 the novel was completed, and in 1930 Bulgakov burned it in the stove. This version of the novel was restored and published 60 years later under the title The Great Chancellor. There was neither a Master nor Margarita in the novel, the gospel chapters were reduced to one - "The Gospel of the Devil" (in another version - "The Gospel of Judas").

The first complete edition of the novel was created from 1930 to 1934. Bulgakov painfully thinks over the title: "The Hoof of an Engineer", "The Black Magician", "Woland's Tour", "Consultant with a Hoof". Margarita and her companion appear in 1931, and only in 1934 does the word "master" appear.

From 1937 until his death in 1940, Bulgakov corrected the text of the novel, which he considered the main work of his life. His last words about the novel are twice repeated "to know."

Literary direction and genre

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is modernist, although the Master's novel about Yeshua is realistic historical, there is nothing fantastic in it: no miracles, no resurrection.

Compositionally, The Master and Margarita is a novel within a novel. The Gospel (Yershalaim) chapters are the product of the Master's imagination. Bulgakov's novel is called a philosophical, mystical, satirical and even lyrical confession. Bulgakov himself ironically called himself a mystical writer.

The Master's novel about Pontius Pilate is close in genre to a parable.

Issues

The most important problem of the novel is the problem of truth. Heroes lose direction (Homeless), head (Georges of Bengal), personality itself (Master). They find themselves in impossible places (Likhodeev), turn into witches, vampires and hogs. Which of these worlds and images is true for each? Or are there many truths? This is how the Moscow leaders echo Pilatov "what is truth."

Truth in the novel is represented by the Master's novel. Guessing the truth becomes (or remains) mentally ill. Parallel to the Master's novel about Pontius Pilate, there are false texts: a poem by Ivan Bezdomny and notes by Levi Matthew, who allegedly writes what did not exist and what will later become the historical Gospel. Perhaps Bulgakov questions the gospel truths.

Another major problem of the eternal life search. It is embodied in the motif of the road in the final scenes. Having abandoned the search, the Master cannot claim the highest reward (light). Moonlight in the story - the reflected light of the eternal movement towards the truth, which cannot be comprehended in historical time, but only in eternity. This idea is embodied in the image of Pilate, walking with Yeshua, who turned out to be alive, along the lunar path.

There is another problem with Pilate in the novel - human vices. Bulgakov considers cowardice to be the main vice. This is in some way an excuse for their own compromises, deals with conscience, which a person is forced to make under any regime, especially under the new Soviet one. It is not for nothing that Pilate's conversation with Mark Ratslayer, who is supposed to kill Judas, is reminiscent of a conversation between agents of the secret service of the GPU, who do not speak directly about anything, understand not words, but thoughts.

Social problems are connected with satirical Moscow chapters. The problem of human history is raised. What is it: the game of the devil, the intervention of otherworldly good forces? To what extent does the course of history depend on a person?

Another issue is behavior. human personality in a specific historical period. Is it possible in a vortex historical events to remain a man, to maintain common sense, personality and not to compromise with conscience? Muscovites are ordinary people, but the housing problem has spoiled them. Can a difficult historical period justify their behavior?

Some issues are believed to be ciphered in the text. Bezdomny, chasing Woland's retinue, visits exactly those places in Moscow where churches were destroyed. Thus, the problem of the godlessness of the new world is raised, in which a place has appeared for the devil and his retinue, and the problem of the rebirth of a restless (homeless) person in it. The new Ivan is born having been baptized in the Moscow River. So Bulgakov connects the problem of the moral fall of man, which allowed Satan to appear on the streets of Moscow, with the destruction of Christian shrines.

Plot and composition

The novel is based on plots known in world literature: the incarnation of the devil in the world of people, the sale of the soul. Bulgakov uses compositional technique"text in text" and connects two chronotopes in the novel - Moscow and Yershalaim. Structurally they are similar. Each chronotope is divided into three levels. The upper level - Moscow squares - the palace of Herod and the Temple. The middle level is the Arbat lanes where the Master and Margarita live - the Lower City. The lower level is the bank of the Moskva River - Kedron and Gethsemane.

The highest point in Moscow is Triumphalnaya Square, where the Variety Theater is located. The atmosphere of a booth, a medieval carnival, where the characters dress up in someone else's clothes and then turn out to be naked, like unfortunate women in a magic shop, is spreading throughout Moscow. It is the Variety that becomes the place of the demonic coven with the sacrifice of the entertainer, whose head was torn off. This very high point in the chapters of Yershalaim corresponds to the place of the crucifixion of Yeshua.

Thanks to the parallel chronotopes, the events taking place in Moscow take on a tinge of buffoonery and theatricality.

Two parallel times are also correlated according to the principle of assimilation. The events in Moscow and Yershalaim have similar functions: they open a new cultural era. The action of these plots corresponds to 29 and 1929 and takes place as if simultaneously: on the hot days of the full moon in spring, on the religious holiday of Easter, which was completely forgotten in Moscow and did not prevent the murder of the innocent Yeshua in Yershalaim.

The Moscow plot corresponds to three days, and the Yershalaim one to days. Three Yershalaim chapters are connected with three eventful days in Moscow. In the finale, both chronotopes merge, space and time cease to exist, and the action continues into eternity.

Three also merge in the final storylines: philosophical (Pontius Pilate and Yeshua), love (Master and Margarita), satirical (Woland in Moscow).

Heroes of the novel

Woland - Bulgakov's Satan - does not look like the gospel Satan, who embodies absolute evil. The name of the hero, as well as his dual nature, are borrowed from Goethe's Faust. This is evidenced by the epigraph to the novel, which characterizes Woland as a force that always wants evil and does good. With this phrase, Goethe emphasized the cunning of Mephistopheles, and Bulgakov makes his hero, as it were, the opposite of God, necessary for world balance. Bulgakov, through the mouth of Woland, explains his idea with the help of a bright image of the earth, which cannot exist without shadows. The main feature of Woland is not malice, but justice. That is why Woland arranges the fate of the Master and Margarita and ensures the promised peace. But Woland has no mercy or indulgence. He judges everything from the point of view of eternity. He does not punish or forgive, but incarnates among people and tests them, forcing them to reveal their true essence. Woland is subject to time and space, he can change them at his discretion.

Woland's retinue refers the reader to mythological characters: the angel of death (Azazello), other demons (Koroviev and Behemoth). On the final (Easter) night, all scores are settled, and the demons are also reborn, losing their theatrical, superficial, revealing their true face.

Master - main character novel. He, like the ancient Greek cultural hero, is the bearer of a certain truth. He stands "at the beginning of time", his work - a novel about Pontius Pilate - marks the beginning of a new cultural era.

In the novel, the activities of writers are opposed to the work of the Master. Writers only imitate life, creating a myth, the Master creates life itself. The source of knowledge about it is incomprehensible. The master is endowed with almost divine power. As the bearer and creator of truth, he reveals the true, human, and not divine, essence of Yeshua, releases Pontius Pilate.

The personality of the master is dual. The divine truth revealed to him is in conflict with human weakness, even madness. When the hero guesses the truth, he has nowhere else to move, he has comprehended everything and can only go to eternity.

It was Margarita who was awarded the eternal shelter, in which she ends up with the master. Peace is both a punishment and a reward. Faithful woman is perfect female image in the novel and Bulgakov's ideal in life. Margarita is born from the image of Margaret "Faust", who died as a result of the intervention of Satan. Margarita Bulgakova turns out to be stronger than Satan and takes advantage of the situation, like Gogol's Vakula, remaining clean herself.

Ivan Bezdomny is reborn and turns into Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev. He becomes a historian who knows the truth from the first instance - from its very creator, the Master, who bequeathed him to write a sequel about Pontius Pilate. Ivan Bezdomny is Bulgakov's hope for an objective presentation of history, which does not exist.

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, he showed that each person must make his own personal choice, not asking for help from higher powers, not waiting for favors from life, a person must make his own destiny.

There are three storylines in the novel: 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. Note that in early editions Bulgakov tried the names Azazello and Belial 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 the philosopher and theologian P.A. Florensky defended in the book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth”: “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 different characters, who is in contact with him, gives a different explanation of the goals of his stay in Moscow. 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 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 he 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 the past. future life those with whom they come into contact also know the text of the Master's novel, which literally coincides with the "Gospel of Woland", the same thing that was told to the 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 tightly 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're 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 introduces himself 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 there is a jockey cap, a checkered short-haired 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 linen, 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 it 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.

Shooting Behemoth with detectives in apartment number 50, his chess duel with Woland, the shooting contest with Azazello - all this is pure humorous scenes, very funny and even to some extent removing the acuteness of those everyday, moral and philosophical problems that the novel poses to the reader.

In the last flight, the reincarnation of this jolly joker is very unusual (like most of the plot moves in this science fiction novel): “The night tore off the Behemoth’s fluffy tail, tore off his hair and scattered its 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 people around them, 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” of the Austrian composer Johann Strauss, the Belgian violinist and composer Henri Vietana, and the orchestra plays best musicians peace. 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 made a pretty mess 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 Bulgakov’s motive of mercy and love in the image of Margarita is solved differently than in Goethe’s poem, where before the power of love “Satan’s nature surrendered ... he did not bear her injection, 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 the fate of the ingenious Master is 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 peace, to the last shelter of the Master and Margarita. But those who deprived the Master of a normal life in Moscow, hunted him down and forced him to seek refuge with the devil - they remained.

In one of the editions of the novel, Woland's last words are as follows: “... He has a courageous face, he does his job right, and in general, everything is over here. It's 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 inclined, reproached the writer for the “black romance” of defeat, surrender 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

In 1928-1929, in one of the most difficult periods of his life, M.A. Bulgakov almost simultaneously begins to create three works: a novel about the devil, a play called "The Cabal of the Saints" and a comedy, which will soon be destroyed along with the novel that had been started. Bulgakov painfully searched for a title for his novel, repeatedly changing one for another. On the margins of his manuscripts, such variants of names as “Tour…”, “Son…”, “Juggler with a Hoof”, “He Appeared”, etc. have been preserved. However, “Black Magician” is most often found. Soon new heroes are introduced: first Margarita, then the Master. The appearance in the novel of the image of Margarita, and with it the theme of great and eternal love, many researchers of Bulgakov's work are associated with his marriage to Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya. By 1936, after 8 years of work on the novel, Bulgakov prepared the sixth complete draft edition. Reworking of the text continued in the future: the writer made additions, changes, changed the composition, titles of chapters. In 1937, the structure of the novel finally took shape, at the same time the title “The Master and Margarita” appeared. For the first time the novel "The Master and Margarita" was published in 1966-1967, in the magazine "Moscow" with large cuts (more than 150 exclusions of the text). In the same year it came out in Paris in its entirety and was soon translated into the main European languages. In the writer's home full text novel appeared only in 1973.

PLOT, COMPOSITION, NOVEL GENRE

M.A. Bulgakov called The Master and Margarita a novel, but the genre uniqueness of this work still causes controversy among literary critics.

It is defined as a novel-myth, a philosophical novel, a menippea (a genre of ancient literature; it is characterized by a free combination of poetry and prose, seriousness and comedy, philosophical reasoning and satirical ridicule, an addiction to fantastic situations (flight into the sky, descent into the underworld, etc. ), creating for the characters the possibility of behavior free from any conventions.).

This is because, as the author of the Bulgakov Encyclopedia, B.V. Sokolov, in The Master and Margarita, almost all the genres existing in the world and literary trends.

Just as original as the genre is the composition of The Master and Margarita - a novel within a novel, or a double novel. These two novels (about the fate of the Master and Margarita and about Pontius Pilate) are opposed to each other and at the same time form a kind of organic unity.

Two layers of time are peculiarly intertwined in the plot: biblical and contemporary to Bulgakov, that is, the 30s. 20th century and 1 in. new era. Many of the events described in the Yershalaim chapters are repeated in a parodic, reduced form exactly 1900 years later in Moscow.

Three storylines of the Master and Margarita (philosophical - Yeshua and Pontius Pilate, love - Master and Margarita, mystical and satirical - Woland, his retinue and Muscovites), clothed in a free, bright, sometimes bizarre form of narration, are closely connected with the image of Woland.

The storylines of the two novels end, intersecting at one space-time point - in eternity, where the Master and his hero Pontius Pilate meet and find forgiveness and eternal shelter.

Collisions, situations and characters of the biblical chapters, being mirrored in the Moscow chapters, contribute to such a plot completion and help to reveal the philosophical concept of the novel.

The genre uniqueness of the novel "The Master and Margarita" - "the last, sunset" work of M. A. Bulgakov still causes controversy among literary critics. It is defined as a novel-myth, a philosophical novel, a menippea, a mystery novel, etc. The Master and Margarita very organically combined almost all the existing genres and literary trends in the world. According to the English researcher of creativity Bulgakov J.

Curtis, the form of "The Master and Margarita" and its content make it a unique masterpiece, parallels with which "are difficult to find both in Russian and in Western European literary tradition No less original is the composition of The Master and Margarita - a novel within a novel, or a double novel - about the fate of the Master and Pontius Pilate.

On the one hand, these two novels are opposed to each other, while on the other hand they form a kind of organic unity. Two layers of time are originally intertwined in the plot: biblical and modern Bulgakov - the 1930s. and I c. ad. Some of the events described in the Yershalaim chapters are repeated exactly 1900 years later in Moscow in a parodic, reduced version.

There are three storylines in the novel: philosophical - Yeshua and Pontius Pilate, love - Master and Margarita, mystical and satirical - Woland, his retinue and Muscovites. They are dressed in a free, bright, sometimes bizarre form of narration and are closely interconnected with Woland's infernal image. The novel begins with a scene at the Patriarch's Ponds, where Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny argue heatedly with a strange stranger about the existence of God.

To Woland's question "who governs human life and the whole order on earth", if there is no God, Ivan Bezdomny, as a convinced atheist, answers: "Man himself governs." But soon the development of the plot refutes this thesis. Bulgakov reveals the relativity of human knowledge and predestination life path. At the same time, he affirms the responsibility of man for his own destiny. Eternal questions: "What is truth in this unpredictable world?

Are there immutable, eternal moral values?", - are put by the author in the Yershalaim chapters (there are only 4 (2, 16, 25, 26) of the 32 chapters of the novel), which, undoubtedly, are the ideological center of the novel. The course of life in Moscow in the 1930s merges with the Master's story about Pontius Pilate.

Hounded in modern life, the genius of the Master finally finds peace in Eternity. As a result, the storylines of the two novels come to an end, having closed in one space-time point - in Eternity, where the Master and his hero Pontius Pilate meet and find "forgiveness and eternal shelter." Unexpected turns, situations and characters of the biblical chapters are mirrored in the Moscow chapters, contributing to such a plot completion and revealing the philosophical content of Bulgakov's narrative.

main feature literary portrait M.A. Bulgakov, in my opinion, is his commitment to the idea of ​​creative freedom. In his works, the writer not only reveals himself as much as possible, which makes it possible to attribute his work to modernism, but also freely places fantastic heroes in reality, risks retelling the gospel story, making central character devil. Bulgakov's narrator often changes his ironic mask to a lyrical one, and sometimes disappears altogether, as, for example, in the chapters about Pilate in The Master and Margarita, leaving the reader the right to draw his own conclusions. The writer proclaims the fearlessness of a true creator as the principle of any creativity, because “manuscripts do not burn”, they are equivalent to the indestructible Universe, nothing can hide the truth. If in The White Guard despondency is considered the main sin, then in The Master and Margarita the master is deprived of the right to light, as he succumbed to fear. The creator's betrayal of his destiny, cowardice, according to Bulgakov, are unforgivable. The master in the novel acquires fearlessness only when he no longer has anything and does not want to create, while Bulgakov's texts have a special magic, because their author always had the courage to speak sincerely and truthfully.

The artistic conventions of Bulgakov's prose - the exceptional quirkiness of the plot, the outward implausibility of situations and details - are difficult to understand. Satire, realism and fantasy are intertwined in The Master and Margarita, this work is defined as a novel-myth. The writer seeks to expand real time and space through the inclusion of text within the text, to show the relationship of events, while at the same time focusing on the universal and cultural-historically distant more than on close reality. It is interesting to intertwine the causes and consequences of ongoing events. So, the procurator of Judea, considering it impossible to release the condemned himself, offers to make a choice to the high priest, but the decision of Caiaphas will affect the future of the whole world, and will give Pilate dubious glory for centuries. In our time, it was worth criticizing Latunsky to smash the master’s novel in his article, as a neighbor Aloisy Mogarych denounces the author, eager to expand his living space. Caught on a denunciation by the secret police, the master goes mad. It is terrible that at all times political gain is more important than morality, and the heroes are similar in that they do not listen to the voice of conscience. For Bulgakov, a moral absolutist, the concepts of good and evil remain unchanged in any empire: both Roman and Soviet. Therefore, he correlates the fate of the protagonist with the fate of Jesus Christ, and modern history- Sacred History. A novel within a novel, the story of Pilate cannot be considered as an independent work (unlike, for example, The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov), since its philosophy is conditioned by its place in the main novel. The mythical images of Yeshua and Woland only affirm the eternity and inviolability of moral laws.

Despite the presence of mythical elements in The Master and Margarita, huge role Bulgakov devoted himself to historical material. In affirming the idea of ​​perverting law and justice under a despotic regime, Bulgakov did not have to distort or embellish historical facts about the times of government in ancient Rome and in the Soviet empire. However, it is characteristic that in the presence of a huge number of plot and figurative parallels between the era of Pontius Pilate and the 30s of the 20th century, Pilate and Caifa, who are situationally in power, are nowhere compared with Stalin. Probably not necessary. “All power is violence against people ... the time will come when there will be no power of either Caesars or any other power. A person will pass into the realm of truth and justice, where no power will be needed at all. The dispute between Yeshua and Pilate, where the former is the embodiment of the idea of ​​Christianity, and the latter represents earthly power, according to the writer, does not need to be resolved. Bulgakov's novel is not anti-Gospel. Yeshua is the Christ of the Sermon on the Mount, a man who believes that all people are naturally good and that one should turn the cheek to the offender. The author only excluded the messianic theme from his work, but otherwise the question of the existence of Christ is solved by him in a religious key. In addition to the Gospel, the Master and Margarita traces the details of medieval apocrypha and legends, with which Bulgakov clothed historical sources in an artistic form. Thus, the novel cannot be strictly attributed to either historical works realism, nor to the works of Christianity.

The artistic, modernist nature of The Master and Margarita is emphasized by numerous symbolic descriptions. In both Moscow and Yershalaim domes, images of golden church domes and golden idols stand out, turning from religious symbols into simple decorations. Bulgakov always doubted the spirituality of the official faith, whose representatives imagined themselves to be the rulers of people's souls. The same tyranny is hidden under external religiosity. Therefore, the appearance in the novel of a thundercloud covering Yershalaim is significant so that the great city "disappears ... as if it did not exist in the world."

Sometimes in Bulgakov what seems to be symbolic becomes a parody. So, the paper icon of Ivan and the heavy image of a poodle around Margarita's neck are like variants of a crucifix, which is absent in the Yershalaim chapters. The twelve writers in Griboedov's meeting room resemble the apostles, only they are waiting not for Christ, but for the deceased Berlioz. Associations with the transformation of water into wine from the Gospel give rise to the scene of the transformation of labels from narzan into money. But it is important that the images of Woland and Yeshua do not look parodic. Woland acts in the novel not as a malevolent tempter, but as a judge who atones for his sins by such a service, Yeshua as an intercessor, interceding for people before God. Black magic sometimes seems less remarkable than reality, with its nocturnal disappearances and other institutionalized violence. The object of Bulgakov's satire is not Ancient Rome with his tyranny, and the writers' club - Griboyedov. Second-rate writers with unappetizing surnames see squabbles around departmental dachas, vouchers and apartments as the meaning of life. The writer makes the target for his satirical pen scoundrels and stupid officials, as if inspired by Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin. But Bulgakov's satire is intended, first of all, not to destroy, but to affirm. To assert the existence of moral absolutes, to awaken in us the voice of conscience, so often drowned out for political reasons.

Bulgakov, despite all the irony in relation to the world around him, still in my eyes looks like a great idealist who opposes the creative perception of the world to the ordinary, believes in romantic ideals. "The Master and Margarita" continues such a series of novels as "We" by E. Zamyatin, "Doctor Zhivago" by B. Pasternak, where in the conflict between the individual and society, the moral victory invariably remains with the creator. It is no coincidence that although the central character in Bulgakov's work is Woland, the novel is named after the master. In some way, using the example of his personality, the author wanted to reveal to us his inner world, attach to your feelings. And this is also a kind of expression of individual freedom, an indicator of its openness to the world.