The main antagonist of the novel The Master and Margarita. What is the novel “The Master and Margarita” really about and do its characters have real prototypes?

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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 20th century. Readers have stolen quotes from it, the characters have become truly iconic, and researchers of the novel have been struggling with its interpretation for several decades.

We are in website We decided to figure out why this particular novel by Bulgakov is so loved by readers of different ages and generations and what thoughts the author put into his work.

Background and intent. "Manuscripts don't burn"

The fate of the legendary novel is quite tragic: Bulgakov burned the first version, and then restored the text from memory. The writer decided to “get even” with his new work after the theater banned the production of his play “The Cabal of the Holy One.” Soon he sent the government a letter with the following lines: “And I personally threw into the stove with my own hands a draft of a novel about the devil...”

In addition, Mikhail Afanasyevich never had time to finish his brainchild: after the writer’s death, his widow, Elena Sergeevna, was in charge of bringing together all the drafts and editing. The novel lay on the shelf for more than 25 years and could have remained unknown, but Bulgakov’s wife gave life to the manuscripts, just like Margarita in the novel.

The first publication of the novel, Moscow magazine, No. 11, 1966.

In the initial version, the work was called “The Engineer’s Hoof,” and among the heroes there was neither the Master nor Margarita. The well-known name appeared only in 1937. Initially, Bulgakov intended to write something like a Russian Faustiana, and therefore Woland was the central character.

Margarita and her lover, who was initially called the Poet and Faust, appeared in the second version of the novel. By the way, before this the word “master” had not been found in Bulgakov’s works and had a rather 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”.

Museum "Bulgakov House".

The book was incredibly important for the writer, as evidenced by the author’s remark found on one of the sheets: “Help, Lord, write a novel.”

Heroes and prototypes. "Never talk to strangers"

Master. There are a large number of interpretations of this image. Some believe that the prototype was Maxim Gorky or Mandelstam (the letter M was embroidered on the Master’s cap). There is also a version that the Master is the 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 - Yeshua Ha-Nozri. He is also a vulnerable thinker, a man who wants to do his own thing - roam the world and preach.

Woland. When Bulgakov read the first two chapters of the novel to his friends, he asked who they thought Woland was. It is noteworthy that not everyone considered him the devil. This is probably true: he is not 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. Woland's double in the novel - Pontius Pilate, because he is also the Law who decides the destinies of people.

Playwright Edward Radzinsky saw features of Stalin in Woland: “Under the scorching summer sun of 1937, when another devil was destroying the devil’s party, when Bulgakov’s literary enemies were dying one after another, the Master wrote his novel... So it’s not difficult to understand who was behind the image of Woland "

At the same time, Bulgakov himself denied that this image had any prototype. He said: “I don’t want to give reasons to amateurs to look for prototypes. Woland doesn’t have any prototypes.”

Margarita. In Margarita one can discern 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 decisiveness in action.”

In addition, Margarita Nikolaevna resembles the writer’s third wife, Elena Sergeevna, because she also left her husband for Bulgakov. There is a similarity even in the description of appearance: Elena Sergeevna’s “squinting eyes” and “the witch slightly squinting in one eye” - Margarita.

Yeshua. Some believe that Yeshua is Jesus. However, Bulgakov scholars 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 Syrian” by blood, which also does not quite correspond to the biography of Christ. In addition, Bulgakov's 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 Christ, but a God-man. A savior who saved no one, unlike Jesus. And the image of Christ is manifested in two characters: Yeshua personifies his mercy, and Pontius Pilate - his punishing essence (it is he who deals with the traitor Judas with the help of Afranius).

Pontius Pilate. Pilate in the novel differs both from the historical character and from the gospel image. The writer made his procurator deliberately “unheroic,” subject to doubts and cursing himself for a moment of cowardice. According to theater critic Vitaly Vilenkin, Bulgakov once asked him about the main human vice, and then he himself answered: “Cowardice is the main vice, because all the others come from it.”

Bassoon (Koroviev). The knight's name, Bassoon, appears to be a reference to the name of a musical instrument: its shape, with its long pipe, vaguely resembles Koroviev's skinny figure. 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 “The Ghoul” by Alexei Tolstoy, 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.

Cat Behemoth. If you believe the Bulgakov Encyclopedia, then the prototype of this bright character was the sea monster from the book “Apocryphal Tales of Old Testament Persons and Events.” Also, according to demonological tradition, Behemoth is a demon of gluttony.

At the same time, Bulgakov’s second wife, Lyubov Belozerskaya, claimed that the prototype of Behemoth was their huge domestic cat Flyushka. The character and habits of Flushka are reflected in the phrase of Behemoth: “I don’t play pranks, I don’t hurt anyone, I fix the primus stove.”

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 wonder why Berlioz’s head was cut off. Someone believes that he was punished for not believing in God and preaching atheism to the poet Bezdomny. 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 there is no need for a deep philosophical reason for terror and evil.

Ivan Bezdomny. Most likely, the prototypes of this hero could be the poets Alexander Bezymensky and Demyan Bedny, who published anti-religious poems in the Pravda newspaper.

Critic Latunsky. The prototype of the character who destroyed the Master's novel was a real person - Osaf Litovsky, a Soviet playwright who sharply criticized Bulgakov. The writer’s contemporaries said that Elena Sergeevna, in anger, even promised to poison Litovsky for the devastating article “Against Bulgakovism.”

Annushka. This is not the first time that a heroine with this name appears in Bulgakov’s works and always marks the beginning of extraordinary events. For example, in one of the early stories, the character Annushka Pylyaeva lights the stove and starts a fire. Also, according to the testimony of the writer’s contemporaries, Annushka was the name of Bulgakov’s neighbor.

Interpretation. “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good”

The novel gave rise to many of the most incredible interpretations and theories.

Some researchers, for example the writer and literary critic Dmitry Bykov, believe that there are two layers 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 came as the judgment that we deserve. You can do whatever you want to the common 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 would be understandable to Stalin. The Master is a creator who is driven to despair and is waiting for mercy, and he must certainly be saved, because he is called upon to heal humanity.

Some believe the 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 affected creative people to a lesser extent.

The second layer of the work, with its mystical and satirical component, is addressed to all readers. The entire 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 held secret meetings with champagne and receptions with ambassadors.

Synopsis of the paired lesson

literature in 11th grade.

Collegium teacher No. 98 Kotik A.A.

Subject. Who is the main character of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov

"The Master and Margarita"?

Target. During the analysis according to images create understandingthe main philosophical and moral problems raised by the author in the novel. Identify the core idea of ​​the novel. Continue working off analytical skills, systematization of materials To performance; teach ethics of discussion and culture of communication.

Equipment:

computer, multimedia installation, novel text.

Lesson progress

The border between light and shadow is you.

Stanislav Jerzy Lec

1. Teacher

Everyone chooses for themselves
A woman, religion, a road.
To serve the devil or the prophet -
Everyone chooses for themselves.

Everyone chooses for themselves
A word for love and for prayer.
A sword for a duel, a sword for battle -
Everyone chooses for themselves.

Everyone chooses for themselves:
Shield and armor. Staff and patches.
The measure of the final reckoning
Everyone chooses for themselves.

This is an excerpt from a poem by Yuri Levitansky -the first page of our last lesson about Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. In previous lessons we talked about the problems raised by the authorin its own way, about the actions of the heroes, each of which in one way or anotherfaced a choice and took his step, which determined not only his present, but also his future.

• What could the Master choose? (struggle) Did you choose?
• What choice did Pontius Pilate and Yeshua face?
• What a step Margarita was the most decisive?
• And everyone who gets caught in the cycle"deeds" of the merry trinity,in fact, he also chooses the road to tomorrow. Another thing is that Woland,smiling sadly, he already knows exactly what choice they will make.

The choice we make speaks volumes: about our character and its strength, about our worldview and the depth of our soul, about the search for truth and awareness the meaning of life. But the whole choice can be reduced to one question, the answer to which will be the essence of a person - Why am I doing this?

Each of the heroes of the novel, answering it, revealed the idea that was put into it by the author. Hence the polyphony of characters and the interweaving of thoughts. Whose voice is it? most Loud, who is the main character of the novel?whose idea is the most important and what is the most important idea in general - the core idea of ​​the novel? – this is what our lesson will be about today – reflection.

1. In previous lessons wetalked about the “three worlds” in the novel. (The world of the present - Moscow of the 30s; World Biblical and World of Eternity)Who personifies these worlds?(The Master and Margarita; Pontius Pilate and Yeshua; Woland). These are the main characters about whom will be discussed today.

Before we give the floor to our speakers, let's preparein your notebook a table where we will contribute the result of our thoughts about each hero.

Master
Margarita
Pontius Pilate
Yeshua
Woland

1. Our search we will start with the main character himselfthe name that comes first in the title of the novel.

(slide 4) Master. He didn't deserve light, he deserved peace.

• Student speechwith a story about the Master as one of the main characters of the novel. (supporting questions -who is the Master? What distinguishes him from other Moscow residents and other writers? What kind of novel is he writing, why was the choice of topic already wrong? Whycritics attacked his novel so much? Why is the manuscript burned?What is the most important thing in life for him? Can he be called the most important character, since his name is included in the title of the book?)

What is the tragedy of the Master?

- What is Bulgakov's idea in calling hero Master,

without giving him a name?

Why The master “did not deserve the light,” but it was given to him peace?

- Why, despite the fact that the Master leaves the world of people, the ending of the novel

about him Sound optimistic?

What is hero image idea?

• (make entries in the table)

1. Love is above the law, above the truth and above justice, becausethe foundation of mercy and forgiveness lieslove, on her and to her thesevirtues hold on. (Patriarch Alexy II)

(Slide 5) Margarita. ... We loved each other, of course, a long time ago, without knowing each other, never seeing each other...

(supporting questions - How did the Master and Margarita meet? What were her eyes full of? Who was Margarita before meeting the Master? Musefor the Master. Margarita and Woland)

(questions for discussion - slide)

• What is the strength of Margarita?
• What's the point Margarita’s “clash” with evil spirits?

5. In the ninth grade, you wrote an essay-reasoning about which of the human vices you consider the most important, because it is fraught with the beginning of allbetrayals and crimes. Do you remember which of the vices were named then?And I promised that we will return to this topic - the main vice - in 11th grade, whenWe will read the novel “The Master and Margarita”. And here is this main vice, the progenitor of all sins according to Bulgakov-

(slide 6) “Cowardice is the most terrible vice” and its personification - Pontius Pilate.

(basic questions - who is Pontius Pilate? What is he like? How does he relate to people? How did Yeshua surprise him? Whatmade it stir in your soul? Why does he send Yeshua to execution?How was the procurator punished?)

(questions for discussion - slide)

• What distinguishes fear from cowardice?
• What choice does Bulgakov tell us about when telling the story of Pontius Pilate? What does it warn against?
• As through the image of the procurator Pontius PilateBulgakov touches onquestion about the harmfulness of unlimited power?

6. Reading the novel “The Master and Margarita”, everyone understands thatthe man standing before Pontius Pilate -a type of Jesus himself. ButM. Bulgakov, depicting Yeshua, does not show anywhere with a single hint that this is the Son of God. Yeshua is represented everywhere as a Man, a philosopher, a sage, a healer, but as a Man. And yet...

(slide 7) Yeshua Ha-Nozri.Immortality... Immortality has come...

(supporting questions -wandering philosopherYeshua Ha-Nozri is a prototype of Jesus; what does he preach? What is the tragedy of the hero?)

(questions for discussion - slide)

• Yeshua came into this worldwith moral truth - every person is good. Do you agree with this philosophical conclusion of the hero?
• What does it represent?Yeshua? What is the main idea the author put into this image?
• How do you understand the epigraph (- Immortality... Immortality has come...-)to our thoughts about Yeshua Ha-Nozri?

• Is it possible draw a parallel between the images of the Master and Yeshua?

1. From the moment when a person’s worldview includes the concept of Good and Evil, and the forces personifyingthem, the image of the ruler of darkness - the Devil, Satan, Mephistopheles - appearsformidable and terrible, destroying and bringing death. And here in literatureIn the 20th century, a novel appears where the main character - the prince of darkness - is, if not charming, then attractive; if not noble, then fair.Bulgakov's Woland blurs the boundaries between good and evil, leaving the reader to think:“...what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?”

(slide 8) Woland. I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good. Goethe. "Faust"

(supporting questions – How and whyWoland appears in Moscow? What is Woland’s retinue “doing” in the city? Can these acts be clearly divided intogood and evil? What is unusual about Bulgakov’s image of Satan?)

(questions for discussion - slide)

• How does the novel reveal the theme of the inevitability of retribution?
• Is Woland a dispenser of justice or an amusing Satan?
• Why is justice a “department” of Woland, and mercy is a different “department”?
• Compare the images of Woland Bulgakovand Goethe's Mephistopheles

1. So, there are five main characters of the novel, five ideas embodied in their images. Who's on youris the gaze dominant? Which layer of the novel carries the main ideological load? What is the main the thought of Bulgakov, who created the novel-testament?

(listen to students' answers)

(slide 9) The struggle between Good and Evil is eternal. And only the right choice, born in the search for truth, will preserve Man in a person, rewarding him with freedomand light. May be, in this the main idea of ​​the novel?Or, reading “The Master and Margarita”,just hear each character, just don’t be scared andlook into the mirror placedBulgakov, and, seeing yourself there, do not break the glass, butstop and think. Because not only do manuscripts not burn, but also the mirrors of eternity do not break.

Roman Bulgakova eternal because the theme is eternalThe person he touched and incorruptiblethe will he left us -

Whatever happens in the end “everything will be right, the world is built on this”

“The “fantastic novel”, which Bulgakov created in the last twelve years of his life, is recognized as the best work of the writer, in which he, as if “a summary of what he had lived,” was able to comprehend with amazing depth and with deep artistic conviction embody his understanding of fundamental issues existence: faith and unbelief. God and the Devil, man and his place in the universe, the human soul and its responsibility before the Supreme Judge, death, immortality and the meaning of human existence, love, good and evil, the course of history and man’s place in it. , that Bulgakov left readers a novel-testament, which not only “brings surprises,” but also constantly poses questions, the answers to which each reader must find in correlating the work with his own ideas about what these “eternal problems” mean to him personally. .

The composition of the novel “The Master and Margarita”, which is rightly called a “double novel”, is very interesting - after all, “The Romance of Pontius Pilate”, created by the Master, is exquisitely “inscribed” in the novel itself, becoming an integral part of it, making this work unique in terms of genre: the opposition and unity of the two “novels” form a certain alloy of seemingly incompatible methods of creating a narrative, which can be called “Bulgakov’s style.” Here, the image of the author, who occupies a significant place in each of the novels, but manifests himself in different ways, takes on special significance. In the “Master’s novel” about Yeshua and Pilate, the author deliberately withdraws himself, it is as if he is not in this almost chronically accurate presentation of events, his “presence” is expressed in the author’s view of what is depicted, inherent in the epic, the expression of his moral position seems to “dissolve” in the artistic fabric works. In the “novel” itself, the author openly proclaims his presence (“Follow me, my reader!”), He is emphatically biased in the depiction of events and characters, but at the same time his author’s position cannot be understood easily, it is “hidden” in a special way buffoonery, ridicule, irony, deliberate gullibility and other artistic techniques.

The philosophical basis of the writer’s moral position are the ideas of “good will” and the “categorical imperative” as mandatory conditions for the existence of the human personality and a rationally organized society, and it is they that serve as a “touchstone” for assessing each of the characters and historical events depicted in both novels, which are united by a common moral situation: the era of Yeshua and the era of the Master is a time of choice that each of the heroes and society as a whole has to make. In this regard, the opposition of these central images is obvious.

"Yeshua, nicknamed Ha-Nozri" in the novel "The Master and Margarita" represents a person who initially carries within himself goodness and light, and this attitude towards the world is based on the moral strength that is inherent in this weak, defenseless person, who is in the power of the procurator Pilate, but stands immeasurably higher all those who seem to have power over him. There is a lot of debate about how close the image of Yeshua is to the Gospel Christ, but, despite their undoubted similarities, what distinguishes them is that Bulgakov’s heroes do not initially perceive himself as the Messiah, he is first of all a man. in his behavior and attitude towards himself. However, this happens only because in fact he is the higher power that determines everything that happens - and it is he who “decides the destinies” of the heroes, it is with him that Woland argues in a special way. -in his own way, restoring the trampled justice in the world of "Massolits", in the end, it is to him that all the thoughts of the heroes of the novel are directed, whether they realize it or not. We can say that the image of Yeshua in the novel "The Master and Margarita" is the spiritual center of the work, it is. that moral principle that ensures the possibility of the existence of the world.

Image of the Master in the novel “The Master and Margarita” is a tragic image of a man who was given the “gift of the Word” from above, who was able to feel it, fulfill the mission entrusted to him - but then found himself unable to maintain the moral height to which he was raised with your creativity. Unlike Yeshua, the bearer and embodiment of “good will,” the Master is only temporarily imbued with the idea of ​​serving good as the basis of life, but a real collision with this very “life” (the denunciation of Aloysius Magarych, the clinic of Professor Stravinsky) forces him to betray himself, then The best thing about him was to renounce not only his novel, but, in fact, everything that was connected with the idea of ​​​​transforming life. Humanly, one can understand a person who has been “finished well” (in Woland’s words) and who admits his defeat: “I hated this novel and I’m afraid... I’m nobody now... I don’t want anything more in life... I have there are no more dreams and inspirations." However, each of the people in life has his own path determined, God's Providence determines the place of each of us in this world, and therefore the Master, who renounced his novel (and therefore himself), turns out to "not deserve light, he deserves peace,” which, probably, can heal his tormented soul in order to... but where then can he escape from the memories of his capitulation to the world of everyday life and lack of spirituality?..

The bearer of the highest justice in Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" is Woland, Satan, who arrived with his retinue in Moscow in order to “see the Muscovites” in order to understand how much the “new system” has changed people who, as he knows very well, are not inclined to become better. And indeed, the “session” at which Muscovites are completely “unmasked” (and not only in the literal sense of the word), Styopa Likhodeev and other satirically depicted images seem to convince him that “these townspeople” have not “internally” changed, therefore he has every reason to draw his unoptimistic conclusion: “... people are like people, ... ordinary people...”. However, the story of the Master and Margarita shows Satan that even in this world of “ordinary” people there is something that goes back to completely different moral categories - there is selfless, devoted love, when “He who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.”

Dedication Margaritas ready to cross the line separating Good from Evil to save a loved one is obvious, but here Bulgakov shows us not just love, but love that opposes generally accepted norms, elevating people who seem to violate these norms. After all, Margarita’s relationship with the Master is a violation of her marital fidelity, she is married, and her husband treats her wonderfully. But this “marriage without love,” which has turned into torment, turns out to be untenable when the heroine finds herself in the grip of a real feeling, sweeping aside everything that prevents people from being happy.

Probably, Margarita’s readiness to save her beloved at any cost is also caused by the fact that she feels guilty for having delayed leaving her husband for too long, the punishment for which was the loss of the Master. But, having agreed to become the queen of Satan’s ball, having gone through everything that was destined for her, at the very last moment the heroine finds herself unable to do what she went through such trials for - she asks Woland not to have her beloved returned to her, and about the unfortunate Frida, whom she promised help... Probably, here we can talk about the complete triumph of “good will”, and it is with this act that Margarita proves that, in spite of everything, she is a truly moral person, because the words are “cherished and cooked in the soul,” she could not pronounce... And no matter how she convinced herself that she was a “frivolous person,” Woland was still right: she was a “highly moral person.” It’s simply not her fault that she lives in a world where true moral values ​​are inaccessible to most people.

The image of the poet is of great importance in the novel "The Master and Margarita" Ivan Bezdomny, who later became professor Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev. This man, a gifted poet (“figurative... power... of talent”), after meeting the Master, understands his moral unpreparedness to be a servant of the Word; he is, as it were, a student of the Master who consciously deviates from the chosen path, thereby repeating his fate teachers.

The satirical “layer” of Bulgakov’s analyzed novel is very convincing; here the writer uses a wide palette of visual means - from humor to farce and grotesquery, he depicts a society of people busy with their petty affairs, settling in life at any cost, from flattery to denunciations and betrayal. Against the backdrop of the truly moral relations of the main characters, such a “life” cannot but cause condemnation, but the writer rather feels sorry for most of his heroes rather than condemning them, although, of course, such characters as Berlioz and the critic Latunsky are portrayed very clearly.

Let's go back to image of Woland. His “activities” in Moscow became a special form of restoring justice - in any case, he punished those who could not help but be punished, and helped those who had the right to count on the help of higher powers. Bulgakov shows that Woland fulfills the will of Yeshua, being, as it were, his messenger in this world. Of course, from the point of view of Christian ethics, this is unacceptable. God and Satan are antipodes, but what if everything in this world is so mixed up that it is difficult to understand how you can make people remember that they are, after all, creatures of God?.. In this regard, the role of in the novel Pontius Pilate, the purpose of which was to condemn Yeshua to death, who tried to save him and then was tormented by what he had done - after all, in essence, the procurator of Judea plays on earth the same role that in the universe (according to Bulgakov) is assigned to Woland: to be a judge. Pilate internally feels the impossibility of sending a “wandering philosopher” to his death, but he does it. Woland, it seems, does not experience internal experiences and hesitations, but why then does he react so emotionally to Margarita’s request?..

The obvious inconsistency of the image of Woland, his strange kinship with Yeshua and Pilate make this image tragic in many ways: his apparent omnipotence actually cannot change anything in this world, because he is not able to hasten the onset of the “kingdom of truth” - this is not from him depends... “Eternally wanting evil” - and “eternally doing good” - this is Woland’s destiny, because this path was determined for him by the One who “hung the thread of life”...

The novel “The Master and Margarita,” which we analyzed, belongs to those works in the history of mankind that have become an integral part of its spiritual life. “Eternal problems” and momentary “truths” that disappear with the sunset, high pathos and tragedy and obvious satire and grotesque, love and betrayal, faith and its loss, Good and Evil as a state of the human soul - that’s what this novel is about. Each appeal to him is a new introduction to the world of enduring moral values ​​and genuine culture.

Bulgakov's novel “The Master and Margarita” is a mystical love story that arouses genuine interest in the fate of the main characters. The image and characterization of Margarita in the novel “The Master and Margarita” plays a significant role in the work. The name of Margarita is associated with the theme of true love, freedom, and fidelity.

The full name of the main character of the novel is Margarita Nikolaevna. Last name unknown.

Appearance

Bulgakov did not describe Margarita’s appearance in detail. He tried to draw attention not to the external beauty of a woman, but to the inner state of her soul. By focusing on the timbre of her voice, movements, manners, laughter, we can assume that she is a beautiful woman.

"She was beautiful and smart..."

One of Margarita’s eyes was slightly squinted, which gave her image a devilish twist.

“The witch who crosses one eye…”

Light curl on short hair. Snow-white smile. The perfect manicure with sharp-edged nails. Eyebrows, like strings, were plucked professionally and suited her face very well.

Margarita dressed stylishly, not provocatively. Elegant and well-groomed. She attracted attention, undoubtedly, but not with her appearance, but with the sadness and hopeless melancholy in her eyes.

Biography

As a young girl, at the age of 19, Margarita married a wealthy man. Ten years of marriage. Childless.

"Childless thirty-year-old Margarita."

The woman was lucky with her husband. He is ready to carry his beloved in his arms, fulfill all the whims, and predict desires. Young, handsome, kind and honest. Everyone dreams of such a husband. He even transferred the housekeeping to the shoulders of the housekeeper he hired. Stability, prosperity, but despite this Margarita is unhappy and lonely. "

Was she happy? Not one minute!..”

Character. Personality of Margarita

Margarita is smart and educated. Woland (Satan) immediately appreciated her intelligence.

She is determined. Her actions have repeatedly demonstrated this. With her inner instinct, intuition, Margarita unmistakably determined what kind of person was in front of her. Ungreedy, merciful. She always helped those who needed help. Doesn't waste words. Proud and independent. One of the bad habits is smoking. She smoked often, and could not overcome this addiction.

Meeting with the Master

Their meeting was accidental. She walked down the street with a bouquet of yellow flowers, thoughtful and lonely. He, obeying some secret sign, followed. She was the first to speak. As the Master said, it was love at first sight.

“Love jumped out between us, like a killer jumps out of the ground... and struck us both at once...”

Margarita was truly happy for the first time. She loved, and it was so new to her. For his sake, the woman was ready to do anything. To endure hardships, to share joys and sorrows, to endure the hardships that befall them.

She sold her soul for the sake of her beloved. I was able to forgive when he disappeared. She remained faithful until the last. He was everything to her. Margarita couldn’t imagine life without him.

Meeting with Woland

For six months she knew nothing about the Master. It was as if he had sunk into the water. Only Woland could help bring back his beloved. To do this, she had to make a deal with him.

She must act as Satan's prom queen. Margarita had to become a witch. Satan was pleased with the new queen and in return promised to fulfill any wish. She dreamed of seeing the Master so that everything would return to its place. Basement, novel, He and She.

Eternal happiness

They stayed together forever. Not in this world, in another, having earned eternal peace for love and loyalty to each other.

A lot has already been written about Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” and, probably, a lot more will be written. How could this book be interpreted?! Some saw in it an apology for the devil, an admiration of dark power, some kind of special, almost morbid addiction of the author to the dark elements of existence. Others, quite atheistically inclined, reproached the writer for the “black romance” of defeat, capitulation to the world of evil. Bulgakov himself called himself a “mystical writer,” but his mysticism did not cloud the mind and did not intimidate the reader.
One of the main targets of Woland’s cleansing work is the complacency of the mind, especially the atheistic mind, which sweeps away the entire area of ​​the mysterious and mysterious along with faith in God. Indulging in free imagination with pleasure, admiring the gloomy power of Woland, the author laughs at the confidence that everything in life can be planned, and the prosperity and happiness of people is easy to arrange - you just have to want it. Bulgakov ridicules the smug loudness of reason, confident that, freed from superstitions, it will create an accurate blueprint of the future, a rational structure of all human relationships and harmony in the soul of man himself. Sensible literary dignitaries like Berlioz, having long ago given up faith in God, do not even believe that His Majesty Chance can hinder them, trip them up. Unhappy Berlioz, who knew exactly what he would do that evening at the Massolit meeting, died just a few minutes later under the wheels of a tram. So Pontius Pilate in the “gospel” chapters of the novel seems to himself and to people to be a powerful man. But Yeshua’s insight amazes the procurator no less than Woland’s interlocutors with the strange speeches of a foreigner on a bench near the Patriarch’s Ponds. The complacency of the Roman governor, his earthly right to control the life and death of other people, is called into question for the first time. Pilate decides the fate of Yeshua. But, essentially, Yeshua is free, and he, Pilate, is now a captive, a hostage to his own conscience. And this two-thousand-year captivity is a punishment for temporary and imaginary power.
One of the paradoxes of the novel is that, having caused a fair amount of mischief in Moscow, Woland’s gang at the same time brought decency and honesty back to life and cruelly punished evil and untruth, thereby serving, as it were, to affirm moral commandments.
Bulgakov's Margarita is a mirror image of Faust. Faust sold his soul to the devil for the sake of a passion for knowledge and betrayed the love of Margarita. Margarita Bulgakova is ready to make a deal with Woland - she becomes a witch for the sake of love and loyalty to the Master.
The thought of transformation, reincarnation always worried Bulgakov. At the lowest level, this is an external transformation. But the ability to change appearance on another level of the plan develops into the idea of ​​internal transformation. In the novel, Ivan Bezdomny goes through his path of spiritual renewal and, as a result, along with his past biography, loses his artificial and temporary name. Only recently, in a dispute with a dubious foreigner, Bezdomny, echoing Berlioz, ridiculed the possibility of the existence of Christ, and now he, in a fruitless pursuit of the Wolandov gang, finds himself on the banks of the Moscow River and, as it were, performs baptism in its font. With a paper icon pinned on his chest and in underwear, he appears at the Massolita restaurant. In his new appearance, Ivan looks crazy, but in reality this is the path to recovery, because only after getting to Stravinsky’s clinic does the hero understand that writing nasty anti-religious propaganda is a sin against truth and poetry. Berlioz's head was cut off for his disbelief in miracles, and Ivan, having injured his head and lost his mind, seems to regain it. Having gained spiritual insight, he renounces the claim to omniscience and all understanding.
The reincarnation will also mark the figure of the Master. The mystery of the words that determined the posthumous fate of the Master attracts one: “He did not deserve light, he deserved peace.” Levi Matthew’s teacher does not want to take the Master “to himself, into the world,” and it is not for nothing that this place in the novel has become a stumbling point for critics, because, apparently, it is precisely here that the author’s attitude towards faith and the idea of ​​immortality is contained. By choosing a posthumous fate for the Master, Bulgakov chose a fate for himself. Due to the Master’s inaccessibility to the heavenly “light” (“he did not deserve it”), the decision of his afterlife affairs is entrusted to Woland. But Satan controls hell, and, as you know, there is no peace there. Bulgakov thought about immortality as the long-term preservation of the soul, “escaping decay,” when writing his main book.
Bulgakov was also concerned about the fate of the inheritance of ideas - by the devoted Levi Matvey or the enlightened Ivan Bezdomny. A researcher at the Institute of History and Philosophy, Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, as a student, alas, is no more gifted than Matvey Levi, who never parted with his goat parchment. Ivan Bezdomny acquires moral consciousness as an inherited gift of the Russian intelligentsia, to which Chekhov and Bulgakov belonged. Along with his checkered cap and cowboy shirt, he leaves his former self-confidence on the banks of the Moscow River. Now he is full of questions for himself and the world, ready to be surprised and learn. “Write a sequel about him,” says the Master, saying goodbye to Ivan. There is no need to expect from him a spiritual feat, the continuation of a great creation. He maintains good sanity - and that’s all. And only one vision, visiting him on a full moon, bothers him from time to time: the execution on Bald Mountain and Pilate’s hopeless entreaties for Yeshua to confirm that there was no execution...
An endlessly lasting torment of conscience. The Master, who lived a sorrowful but worthy life, will never know her.
By profession, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a doctor. And his first writings were inspired by the impressions of a zemstvo doctor. Apparently, medicine encourages deep reflection about life. Let's remember Chekhov - he was also a doctor. I remembered Chekhov in connection with Bulgakov the mystic because, according to some literary sources, for example, an essay by V. Rozanov, Anton Pavlovich in life was not without mystical beliefs and sentiments. So, we can assume that a mystical worldview is characteristic to one degree or another of all doctors. This is understandable, because they have to frequently witness the death of people. Bulgakov did not avoid mystical moods, but they resulted in satire. Bulgakov took a long path to his novel “The Master and Margarita”: in the early 20s he conceived the novel “The Engineer with a Hoof,” and only in 1937 this novel began to be called “The Master and Margarita.” As we can see, mystical symbolism interested the author from the very beginning of his creative career. But I was interested in it as symbolism, nothing more. Bulgakov used mysticism in many of his works as a more convenient form for him to convey his thoughts about life.
Diaboliada is one of Bulgakov’s favorite motifs and was vividly depicted in “The Master and Margarita.” But mysticism in the novel plays a completely realistic role and can serve as an example of a grotesque, fantastic, satirical exposure of the contradictions of reality. Woland sweeps over Moscow with punishing force. Its victims are mocking and dishonest people. Otherworldliness and mysticism don’t seem to fit with this devil. If such a Woland did not exist in a state mired in vices, then he would have to be invented.
And they imagined that they were hiding: to the barman with “second-fresh fish” and gold tens in hiding places; to the professor, who had slightly forgotten the Hippocratic Oath; to the smartest specialist in “exposing values...”
It is not the devil that is scary to the author and his favorite characters. For the author, evil spirits do not exist in reality, just as the God-man did not exist. In Bulgakov’s novel there lives a different, deep faith - in historical man and in immutable moral laws. It’s not that it’s bad that Berlioz denies the existence of God and passionately proves this to a stranger at the Patriarch’s, but that Berlioz believes that since there is no God, therefore everything is permitted.
The mystical appears in the novel only after the name of the philosopher Kant is mentioned on the first pages. This is not at all accidental. For Bulgakov, Kant’s idea is programmatic. He, following the philosopher, argues that moral laws are contained in man and should not depend on religious horror of the coming retribution, that same terrible judgment, a caustic parallel to which can be easily seen in the inglorious death of the well-read but unscrupulous atheist who headed the Moscow Writers Association.
And the Master, the main character of the book, who wrote a novel about Christ and Pilate, is also far from mystic. He wrote a book based on historical material, deep and realistic, far from religious canons. This “novel within a novel” focuses on ethical problems that each generation of people, as well as each individual thinking and suffering person, must solve for themselves.
So, mysticism for Bulgakov is just material. But reading “The Master and Margarita,” sometimes you still feel as if the shadows of Hoffmann, Gogol and Dostoevsky are wandering nearby. Echoes of the legend of the Great Inquisitor are heard in the gospel scenes of the novel. Fantastic mysteries in the spirit of Hoffmann are transformed by the Russian character and, having lost the features of romantic mysticism, become bitter and cheerful, almost everyday. Gogol’s mystical motifs appear only as a lyrical sign of tragedy when the novel comes to an end: “How sad the evening earth is! How mysterious are the fogs over the swamps. Those who wandered in these mists, those who suffered a lot before death, those who flew over this earth carrying an unbearable load, know this. The tired one knows this. And without regret he leaves the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, and is given with a light heart into the hands of death, knowing that only she will calm him down.”
“Manuscripts don’t burn,” says one of the characters in the novel, trying to burn his manuscript, but this does not bring him relief. The master remembers the text by heart. The human memory of goodness and justice is beyond any mysticism. Bulgakov knew this.

Essay on literature on the topic: Master is the main character of the novel “The Master and Margarita”

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The Master is the main character of the novel “The Master and Margarita”