The novel "The Master and Margarita" became not only the most famous work of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, but also one of the most mysterious books of the XX century. Readers have pulled it apart for quotes, the characters have become truly iconic, and the researchers of the novel have been struggling with its interpretation for several decades.
In the initial version, the work was called "The Engineer's Hoof", and there was no Master or Margarita among the heroes. The well-known name appeared only in 1937. Initially, Bulgakov planned to write something like a Russian Faustian, and therefore the central character was Woland.
Margarita and her lover, who was initially called the Poet and Faust, appeared in the second version of the novel. By the way, before that, the word "master "was not found in Bulgakov's works and had rather a negative connotation, since it was synonymous with the word" craftsman " (uncreative person). Bulgakov gave it a new meaning and equated it with the word "artist".
The book was incredibly important for the writer, as evidenced by the author's remark found on one of the sheets: "God help me to write a novel."
Heroes and prototypes.
Master. There are a large number of interpretations of this image. Someone believes that Maxim Gorky or Mandelstam served as the prototype (the letter M was embroidered on the Master's cap). There is also a version that the Master is a Russian Faust, a creator who is obsessed with understanding the world. By the way, in the novel, many characters have doubles. So, the Master's double is Yeshua Ha-Nozri. He is also a defenseless thinker, a man who wants to do his own thing — to wander around the world and preach.
Woland. When Bulgakov read the first two chapters of the novel to his friends, he asked who, in their opinion, Woland was. It is noteworthy that not everyone considered him a devil. Perhaps it is true: he is not an absolute evil. Woland is one of the variants of this evil, who is in charge of earthly problems: he establishes some kind of justice, punishes bribe takers and fools, gives a few decent people "peace" and flies away. Voland's double in the novel is Pontius Pilate, because he is also the Law that decides the fate of people.
The playwright Edward Radzinsky saw in Woland the features of Stalin: "Under the scorching summer sun of 1937, when another devil was destroying the diabolical party, when Bulgakov's literary enemies were dying one by one, the Master wrote his novel... So it is not difficult to understand who was behind the image of Woland."
At the same time, Bulgakov himself denied that this image has any prototype. He said: "I don't want to give reasons to amateurs to look for prototypes. Woland doesn't have any prototypes."
Margaret. In Margarita, you can guess the features of both literary characters and real women. While working on the novel, Bulgakov turned to the heroine of "Faust" Margarita (Gretchen), as well as to the image of a real woman — Margarita of Navarre, "Queen Margot". According to the researchers, they are brought together by "audacity in love and determination in actions".
In addition, Margarita Nikolaevna resembles the writer's third wife, Elena Sergeevna, because she also left her husband for Bulgakov at one time. There is even a similarity in the description of the appearance: Elena Sergeevna has a "squinting eye cut" and Margarita has a" witch slightly squinting on one eye".
Yeshua. Someone believes that Yeshua is Jesus. However, Bulgakologists argue that it is impossible to put an equal sign between these images. In the novel, the character is about 27 years old, while Jesus was 33 years old when he was crucified. Yeshua does not remember his parents and "seems to be a Syrian" by blood, which also does not quite correspond to the biography of Christ. In addition, the Bulgakov hero has only one student-Levi Matvey, and not 12.
Alexander Mirer in his book "The Gospel of Mikhail Bulgakov" writes that Yeshua is not the Christ, but the God-man. A savior who didn't save anyone, unlike Jesus. And the image of Christ is manifested in two characters: Yeshua embodies his mercy, and Pontius Pilate-a punishing essence (it is he who deals with the traitor Judas with the hands of Afranius).
Pontius Pilate. Pilate in the novel differs both from the historical character and from the evangelical image. The writer made his procurator deliberately "unheroic", subject to doubts and cursing himself for a moment of cowardice. According to the theater critic Vitaly Vilenkin, Bulgakov once asked him about the main human vice, and then he answered himself: "Cowardice is the main vice, because all the others come from it."
Bassoon (Koroviev). The name of the knight, the Bassoon, is probably a reference to the name of a musical instrument: its shape with a long tube vaguely resembles the skinny figure of Koroviev. As for the surname-Koroviev — there is a version that in Hebrew the word "karov" means "close", and Fagot is the eldest of Woland's subordinates. According to another version, the surname is a reference to the character of the story of Alexey Tolstoy "The Ghoul" to the state councilor Telyaev, who turned out to be a knight and a vampire.
Azazello. Bulgakov took the image of the desert demon Azazel from the Old Testament. This fallen angel taught men to create weapons, and women to decorate their bodies and paint their faces. It is no coincidence that it is Azazello who kills Baron Meigel and presents Margarita with a magic cream.
The Hippo cat. If you believe the "Bulgakov Encyclopedia", then the prototype of this bright character was a sea monster from the book "Apocryphal tales about Old Testament persons and events". Also, according to the demonological tradition, the Hippopotamus is a demon of gluttony.
At the same time, Bulgakov's second wife Lyubov Belozerskaya claimed that their huge pet cat Flyushka served as the prototype of the Hippo. The character and habits of the Flyushka are reflected in the Behemoth's phrase: "I'm not naughty, I don't touch anyone, I fix the primus."
Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz. Most likely, this is a collective image of Soviet ideologists. Among the possible prototypes of this hero is the founder of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers, Leopold Averbakh. By the way, many people are wondering why Berlioz's head was cut off. Someone believes that he was punished for not believing in God and preaching atheism to the poet Homeless. However, there is a version that Mikhail Alexandrovich was hit by a tram simply because Woland needed his apartment. In other words, the author says that often a deep philosophical reason is not needed for terror and evil.
Ivan Homeless. Most likely, the prototypes of this hero could be the poets Alexander Bezymensky and Demyan Bedny, who published anti-religious poems in the newspaper Pravda.
The critic Brusovsky. The prototype of the character who defeated the Master's novel was a real person-Osaf Litovsky, a Soviet playwright who spoke with sharp criticism of Bulgakov. Contemporaries of the writer said that Elena Sergeevna in anger even promised to poison Litovsky for a devastating article "Against Bulgakovism".
Annushka. The heroine with this name does not appear for the first time in the works of Bulgakov and always marks the beginning of emergency incidents. For example, in one of the early stories, the character Annushka Pylyaeva melts the stove and sets a fire. Also, according to the testimony of the writer's contemporaries, the name of Bulgakov's neighbor was Annushka.
The novel gave rise to many of the most incredible interpretations and theories.
Some researchers, such as the writer and literary critic Dmitry Bykov, believe that two layers are guessed in the novel. The first is an appeal to Stalin, to whom the author wanted to convey the idea: yes, we understand that you are evil and have come as a judgment that we deserve. You can do whatever you want with ordinary people, but please don't touch the artist.
And in this sense, the image of the Master is drawn in such a way that it is clear to Stalin. A master is a creator who is driven to despair and is waiting for leniency, and he must certainly be saved, because he is called to heal humanity.
Some believe that this message worked. In 1947, Bulgakov's widow allegedly managed to transfer the manuscript of the novel to Stalin's secretary, and perhaps that is why in the late 40s Stalin's repressions were less concerned with creative people.
The second layer of the work with its mystical and satirical component is addressed to all readers. The whole novel is imbued with duality. Apparently, the 30s were conducive to this — Soviet citizens lived a double life. During the day, everything was decent: people worked, built communism and drank water with syrup, and at night they arranged secret meetings with champagne and receptions with ambassadors.
One of the key thoughts of the novel: the most terrible human vice is cowardice. Bulgakov also tried to understand whether it is possible to create good out of evil, and came to the conclusion that no, it is impossible. There is no such evil that could turn into good.
However, the author made the evil in his work so charming that as a result, the mass reader was fascinated by Woland and created a cult out of this character. For a long time in Moscow, there were even celebrations of Walpurgis Night on the Sparrow Hills — where the Prince of Darkness said goodbye to Moscow at the end of the novel.
