The majority of our population made a conscious decision long ago not to believe the fairy tales about God.” 7 He explains to the curious stranger, Woland, that “In our country atheism comes as no surprise to anyone. Berlioz has commissioned from Ivan an epic poem critical of Christianity, and he is complaining that Ivan’s poem mistakenly implies that Jesus truly existed.īerlioz is expounding on scholarly sources that show that Jesus’s existence is merely a myth, when a “foreigner” approaches them, expressing interest in their conversation. That The Master and Margarita is critical of the spiritual and intellectual poverty of its age is made clear as early as the evocative opening chapter, in which the editor Berlioz and the poet Ivan Bezdomny meet a strange “foreigner” (Woland/Satan) at Moscow’s Patriarch Ponds. The Opening: Berlioz the Bureaucrat Meets Satan Far from being incompatible or incoherent, these many elements are mutually reinforcing facets of Bulgakov’s vision. At the same time, it celebrates expressions of human freedom such as satire, cleverness, retributive justice, romantic love, artistry, madness, ecstasy, and pride. To this end, The Master and Margarita celebrates deeply Christian symbols such as compassion, self-sacrifice, repentance, constancy, and mercy. 5 In light of Eric Voegelin’s work, I suggest that the novel is an outpouring of resistance against the spiritual and intellectual ills of its time, and further suggest that its disparate story lines, tones, and moods all contribute to that resistance, and that in fact the novel’s purpose is to suggest ways to break out of the spiritual poverty of the age without falling into an untenable religious dogmatism. I suggest that the apparently disjointed story lines of The Master and Margarita do come together meaningfully. And still others believe the novel’s unity lies in the internal parallels among its own storylines and characters, its hidden real-life referents (Woland as Stalin or as the American Ambassador to Moscow, the Master as Bulgakov), its “hidden” author (Ivan Bezdomny or the Master), its metaphysics, its theology (Manichaean, Gnostic, Orthodox Christian), its response to Marxist atheism, or its exploration of the roles of myth and history in the Gospels. For those who believe that the stories do not mesh well, some see this as a weakness, some as a strength others believe that the novel is indeed a coherent unity, but the unifying theme is variously said to lie in the book’s stylistic antecedents (Menippean satire, folk or fairy tale, trickster myth, carnival/medieval mystery play), or its literary inspirations (Goethe, Dante, the New Testament, Pushkin, Gogol). Readers and scholars have long wondered whether and how these stories fit together. 3 The Master and Margarita is thus a complex narrative woven from three strands: in present-day Moscow occur the devil’s visit and the story of the two lovers, and nineteen centuries past occurs the story of Christ (Yeshua) and Pilate. Prior to the appearance of these eponymous characters, we are introduced to two major storylines that appear largely unrelated both to one another and to the romance of the title characters: the story of the devil’s visit to Moscow and the story of Christ’s Passion as seen through the eyes of Pontius Pilate. His beloved, Margarita, appears for the first time nearly two hundred pages into the book. For the “Master” of the title does not appear until nearly a hundred pages into the text, when he appears in his robe and slippers on the balcony belonging to a fellow patient in a mental hospital just outside Moscow. Even its title teases with the question of what the novel’s subject is. Since its publication, readers have been both enchanted and perplexed by the book. But it was not published until 1967, twenty-seven years after his death. 1 Ultimately, Bulgakov called his novel by the name under which it was published: The Master and Margarita. IBIZ CYBERTECH PVT LTD SERIESIn the years he worked on it (1928-1940), he referred to the novel by many names, including “Consultant with a Hoof,” “The Great Chancellor,” and “Satan”–all names referring to the central character Woland–the devil–who in the novel appears in 1930s Moscow with a retinue of fiendish assistants to test and tempt the Muscovites in a series of brutally hilarious encounters. Mikhail Bulgakov took a long time to settle on the title for his last great work, The Master and Margarita.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |