Trying to explain the “mysteries” of “The Master and Margarita,” critical thought turns with analogies to the work of Gogol, which is natural, because Bulgakov considered the author “ Dead souls"by your teacher. But this is not the only writer who, according to critics, influenced the work of Mikhail Afanasyevich. IN Russian literature his predecessors, in addition to Gogol, are considered to be Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. Bely, Mayakovsky (as a playwright), in foreign countries - first of all Hoffmann, a German romantic who recreated the world as a kind of unreality. There is no doubt that this list will grow.

Until now, no one has been able to determine exactly what the satirical, philosophical, psychological, and in the Yershalaim chapters, the epic novel “The Master and Margarita” is. It was also seen as a result of global literary development, and as a historical response to specific life events of the 20s and 30s. and as a concentration of ideas from the writer’s previous works. But most importantly, Bulgakov, anticipating his death, understood “The Master and Margarita” as “the last sunset novel”, as a testament, as his main message to humanity (what is most surprising, he wrote this work “for the table”, for himself, not at all confident in the prospect of publishing a masterpiece).

The novel “The Master and Margarita” loomed over everything that Bulgakov wrote, like the shadow of a mountain at sunset approaches the earth. In the shadows everything fades and becomes blurred; the earth itself seems to become an extension of the mountain, its pedestal. And the mountain seems even higher, even more majestic. Time has played a trick on us. The author himself made fun of us. He, of course, didn't want this. But he was writing a funny novel. Although the fun in it is mixed with sadness. Some pages even make your heart numb. And yet Bulgakov, laughing, parted with his past.

And maybe with life.

No matter how terrible this analogy is, Bulgakov’s novel and Bulgakov’s death stand side by side. “The Master and Margarita” is a dying novel. But this is also a novel about death. Its pages were completed with a weakening hand. And it was paid for not with hours of inspiration, but with the life of the author.

The novel “The Master and Margarita” requires the reader to go beyond everyday everyday ideas and information. Otherwise part artistic meanings the novel remains invisible, and some of its pages may seem like nothing more than the product of the author’s rich imagination.

Bulgakovsky Woland visited Moscow to find out how much people had changed internally after the great social revolution. And then it turns out that they have not become any better, that society is seriously ill. Woland in the novel does good, reveals human vices and evokes in the reader, in full accordance with Bulgakov’s plan, not hostility, but sympathy. But he is unable to change the existing social system. And after he leaves, everything returns to normal. The Master and Margarita are present in the novel in inextricable unity. Even when the Master alone is on stage telling Ivan the bitter story of his life, his entire story is permeated with memories of his beloved. Even when we see lonely Margarita, who has lost her Master, all her actions are subordinated to caring for her lover. She in to a greater extent determines the course of action of the entire second part of the novel, although, if you look closely, it only fulfills Woland’s will. Great, all-consuming love for the Master and bitterness against the entire surrounding world - this is the main contradiction in Margarita’s character.

Finally, the Master is the hero whose fate most closely repeats the fate of Bulgakov himself. This proximity has already been discussed above. But the Master could not fully endure the trials that befell him. He really didn't make any compromises in his work. But at the same time, he gave up the fight for his work and could no longer create. Bulgakov fought all his life for his works to be published or for his novels to be published, and he improved the text of “The Master and Margarita” as long as he remained conscious, despite his terminal illness.

The six main characters of the novel form two functional pairs: Pilate - Woland and Yeshua - Master. Among them is Margarita, who occupies a unique position in the structure of the work. The homeless man is quite different from the functionally similar character in the Yershalaim scenes, Levi Matvey. Jovanovic M. “The Gospel of Matthew as literary source“The Master and Margarita.” p.122-123 The figure of Levi is devoid of any evolution, and his character is contradictory. The role of this character, unlike the Homeless Man, is quite secondary. The main characters, following Yeshua and Woland, end up in an extraterrestrial world of light and darkness. Here the characters of the main characters lose their inherent contradiction. Margarita has only her love for the Master. The master gets rid of fear of life and alienation, remains with his beloved woman alone with his creativity and surrounded by his heroes. Pilate receives forgiveness and deliverance from the pangs of conscience that have tormented him for almost two thousand years. The procurator has only a craving for the great thinker Yeshua Ha-Nozri, with whom he can now easily finish the interrupted dispute about what the truth is and what the most terrible vice in the world is. Yeshua's fear of death and hostility towards executioners disappeared. He remains only in his eternal hypostasis of the ideal of good. Woland again took on his eternal guise as a knight of evil, that evil without which good cannot exist.

In the epilogue, on the night of the full moon, in a dream, the former poet again sees Yeshua and Pilate, the Master and Margarita, walking along the road moonlight, and thus learns the ending of the novel written by the Master. Only for this night does Ivan’s conviction in his own omniscience leave him, and new knowledge becomes vitally necessary for him. In this dream of Bezdomny, all the main characters of the novel meet, except Woland. But this dream itself is evidence that Ivan believed in the story of Woland and the Master about Yeshua and Pilate and, thus, believed in the existence of the devil - Woland, which he denied at the beginning of the novel. Therefore, Woland is invisibly present in this final scene of “The Master and Margarita”.

The reader does not experience any negative feelings towards any of the main characters. Even the prince of darkness Woland, who is traditionally supposed to inspire fear and horror, rather evokes a smile and sympathy for how he deftly brings out clean water persons like Berlioz, Likhodeev or Bosom. You feel sympathy for all the characters, and at the same time you realize that none of them is ideal. Even Yeshua, who comes closest to the image of the ideal hero, is given some degrading features: albeit vague, but still fear, a hoarse, rough voice with which he speaks to the executioners, bitterness against those who execute him.

In “The Master and Margarita” in the earthly world we no longer meet ideal heroes. They acquire their ideal quality only in the supermundane space, where a similar transformation occurs with minor characters- Woland's retinue. In his novel, Bulgakov abandoned ideal heroes as positive ones. Positive heroes here are those on whose side the author's and reader's sympathies are.

The novel “The Master and Margarita” can be considered the final one in Bulgakov’s work. It contains many layers of meaning and is revealed to us at different levels of understanding. The main thing that makes you think and awakens the reader’s thoughts is the confrontation between freedom and unfreedom that occurs throughout the entire novel.

Woland’s words “Manuscripts don’t burn” and the resurrection from the ashes of a “novel within a novel” - the Master’s narrative about Pontius Pilate - this illustration is widely known Latin proverb: “Verba volant, scripta manent.” Interestingly, it was often used by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, one of Bulgakov’s favorite authors. Translated, it sounds like this: “Words fly away, but what is written remains.” The fact that words actually fly away is evidenced by a noise similar to that produced by the flapping of a bird's wings. It appears during the chess game between Woland and Behemoth after the latter’s scholastic speech about syllogisms. Empty words actually did not leave a trace and were needed by Behemoth only to distract the attention of those present from the fraudulent combination with their king. The Master's novel, with the help of Woland, is destined long life. Bulgakov himself, who destroyed the first edition of “The Master and Margarita,” became convinced that once it was written it was no longer possible to banish it from memory, and as a result, after his death he left the manuscript of the great work as an inheritance to his descendants.

Elena Sergeevna Elena Sergeevna is the wife of M.A. Bulgakov.

I read to Bulgakov before his death: “The magic black horses were tired and carried their riders slowly, and the inevitable night began to catch up with them. The night began to cover the forests and meadows with a black scarf, the night lit sad lights somewhere far below, now no longer interesting or needed by either Margarita or the Master, other people’s lights...”

And the landscape of childhood, colored by the sadness of parting forever, was transformed in these lines, generalizing and turning into the image of a land left forever.

History rewarded the writer for his work: the novel was finally published from the depths of Bulgakov’s desk drawer (for the first time - in 1966 in the eleventh issue of the Moscow magazine), when the hopeless Stalinist times were left behind.

Analysis of the work The novel “The Master and Margarita” is the most famous and popular work of M. Bulgakov, on which he worked until his last hour. The novel was created in the 30s. The first edition dates back to 1931. We can say that by 1937 the main work on the novel was completed. But the writer failed to “polish” it completely. Several versions of the text are still kept in the archives, which raises debate about what should be considered the final version of the novel.

The fate of the novel is similar to the fate of many works of the Soviet era. There was no question of its publication. His furious accusatory power destroyed the foundations of what the Bolsheviks so strived for - the formation of Soviet totalitarian thinking. Bulgakov read individual chapters of the novel to his friends.

The novel was first published 25 years after it was written in the Moscow magazine. A controversy immediately breaks out about its originality, which, however, quickly subsides. Only during the period of glasnost, in the 80s, the novel received a third life.

Among researchers of Bulgakov’s creative heritage, debates regarding the genre of “The Master and Margarita” continue. It is not for nothing that the writer clarifies that his work is a mythical novel. The very concept of “myth” carries within itself a broad generalization, an appeal to folk traditions that combine signs of real life and phantasmagoria, unusualness, and fantasticality. Thus, a person finds himself in an extreme atmosphere, finds himself in a world of extremes. And this atmosphere reveals the laws of existence and the laws established in the bureaucratic world. All the best and worst sides of society and an individual are exposed.

The genre of the novel allows you to take a wide layer of reality and examine it with magnification. The author gives the reader the opportunity to see the entire social hierarchy, a complex system, thoroughly permeated with the spirit of bureaucracy. Those who remained faithful to the principles of humanity, sincerity, remained faithful to the ideals of high morality, are immediately dismissed as something alien, foreign. This is why Master and Ivan Bezdomny end up in a psychiatric clinic.

The compositional features of the novel also greatly contribute to the disclosure of the main ideas. In the text two coexist completely equally storylines, two novels. The first is a story about extraordinary events taking place in Moscow. They are connected with the adventures of members of Woland's retinue. The second is the events of the novel created by the Master. The chapters of the Master's novel are organically woven into the general course of events taking place in Moscow.

The events in Moscow date back to 1929 and 1936. The author connects the realities of these two years. The events of the Master's novel take the reader two thousand years ago. These two storylines are very different from each other, not only in completely different historical details, but also in the style of writing. Mischievous, playful, roguish chapters about the adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth are intertwined with chapters designed in a strict style, almost dry, clear, rhythmic.

It is very important to note that these two lines intersect. The chapters about Pontius Pilate begin with the same words as the chapters about the fate of the Master and Margarita end. But this is not the main thing. There is a certain connection and overlap between them.

They manifest themselves most noticeably in the correspondence between the characters. The Master looks like Yeshua, Ivan Bezdomny looks like Matthew Levi, Aloysius looks like Judas. The author also gives a broader picture: the guests at Woland’s ball (executioners, informers, slanderers, traitors, murderers) are very similar to many mean and ambitious residents of modern Moscow (Styopa Likhodeev, Varenukha, Nikanor Bosoy, Andrei Fomich - the barman, and others) . And even the cities - Moscow and Yershalaim - are similar to each other. They are brought together by descriptions of weather conditions and landscapes. All these coincidences serve to expand the narrative plan and provide a broader layer of life. Times and morals have changed, but people have remained the same. And a peculiar picture Last Judgment given in comparison of two times.

Like artistic technique It is not by chance that Bulgakov used it. Through the mouth of Woland, who saw modern people at the Variety Theater, the author says: “Well, they are frivolous... well, well... and mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts... ordinary people... in general, they resemble the old ones... housing problem I just ruined them." People do not change, only one environment is changeable, fashion, homes. But the vicissitudes that have ruled over man from time immemorial are still the same, and absolutely nothing has changed.

The novel has incredibly great moral potential and extraordinary power of generalization.

One of the main themes is the theme of good and evil. The writer states positive life ideal. He says that people are not perfect. But, despite their sometimes outright cynicism, cruelty, ambition, unprincipledness, the good beginning in them turns out to be stronger. This is what ensures the victory of good over evil, light over darkness. According to Bulgakov, this is the great, secret and only possible law of life.

Thus, the novel introduces philosophical issues of love and hatred, loyalty and friendship (the work of the executed Yeshua is continued by his faithful disciple Levi Matvey), justice and mercy (Margarita’s request for Frida), betrayal (Pontius Pilate understood that by approving the sentence, he was committing betrayal, and therefore after he finds no peace), issues of power (connected with the images of Berlioz and, in a conditional sense, with Pontius Pilate and Yeshua. Yeshua argued that “the time will come, and there will be no power of the Caesars and no power at all.” And he was accused of calling for the overthrow of the power of Emperor Tiberius).

One of the leading themes in the novel is the theme of love. This is love for people, mercy, and love as a manifestation of affection and tenderness. The author’s idea that every person has good feelings is very important here, but not everyone is able to develop them. So, it is precisely that person, according to Bulgakov, who is worthy of love, in whose soul a flame of goodness, a spark of morality, has been lit.

The theme of love and high morality imperceptibly penetrates the novel at the very beginning. Woland, who arrived in Moscow, interferes in the conversation between Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny. Externally, we are talking about the existence of God and the devil. But in fact, this is a conversation about light and darkness, about good and evil. The fact is that Bulgakov perceives God not as a really existing gray-bearded old man who created everything around him, but as a kind of higher law, a manifestation of the highest morality. This is where the author’s ideas about a certain common law of good. Bulgakov believes that people are subject to this law to varying degrees, but its ultimate victory is an invariable given. The idea of ​​enduring values, of the goodness inherent in man, is proven in the novel with the help of the image of Pontius Pilate. For twelve thousand moons he sat waiting for forgiveness and peace. This is his retribution for pettiness, fear, cowardice. Towards a bright ideal true life Ivan Bezdomny also strives. He firmly understands the difference between true art and that petty tradesmanship from which the life of MASSOLIT is woven.

The theme of the intelligentsia is connected with his image, as well as with the image of the Master. This theme is clearly revealed in the play “Days of the Turbins” (Persikov), “ dog's heart" In The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov brings together all the problems posed.

The intellectual hero Berlioz heads the reputable organization MASSOLIT in Moscow. It determines who will be published in the magazine. The meeting with Homeless was quite significant for Berlioz. Ivan had to write a poem about Christ. In some critical works, researchers asked the question: “Why did Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov execute Mikhail Alexandrovich?” Obviously, by instructing Ivan to write the poem, Berlioz saw that he had a great influence on Bezdomny. Ivan is naive, and therefore it cost Berlioz nothing to direct his thoughts in the direction that he needed. He understood that Ivan’s life would pass, but his work would remain. That is why Bulgakov presents a strict account of Berlioz.

The young poet Ivan Bezdomny, ironically, ends up in a madhouse. He meets the Master and understands the true value of art. After this he stops writing poetry.

The master is a creative intellectual. He has no first name and no last name. What is important for Bulgakov is what he writes, his gift for artistic speech. It is not for nothing that the author places his hero in a meager environment: a small basement, without any special amenities. The Master has no personal benefits. But he still wouldn’t be able to do anything if he didn’t have Margarita.

Margarita is the only character who does not have a double in the novel. This is a heroine who is extremely sympathetic to the author. He emphasizes her uniqueness, spiritual richness and strength. She sacrifices everything for the sake of her beloved Master. And therefore she, vindictive and imperious, almost completely destroys the apartment of the critic Latunsky, who spoke so unflatteringly about the Master’s novel. Margarita is incredibly faithful to the principles of honor and dignity, and therefore, instead of asking Woland to return her beloved, she asks for Frida, to whom she accidentally gave hope.

At the end of the novel, both the Master and Margarita deserved peace, not light. This obviously ties into the concept of creativity in the novel. On the one hand, the Master found what the writer lacks most - peace. Peace gives a true creator the opportunity to escape into the world of his own fantasies, into a world where he can create freely.

On the other hand, this peace was given to the Master as a punishment for his weakness. He showed cowardice, retreated from his brainchild, and left it unfinished.

In the image of the Master they often see a lot of autobiographical things, but they always notice the difference: Bulgakov never deviated from his novel, as the Master did. So, the heroes find peace. The Master still has his muse - Margarita. Perhaps this is what Bulgakov himself was striving for.

Plan
1. Arrival in Moscow of Satan and his retinue: Azazello, the cheerful cat Behemoth, Koroev-Fagot, the charming witch Gella. Meeting of Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny with Boland.
2. The second storyline is the events from the Master’s novel. Pontius Pilate talks with the arrested Yeshua Ha-Nozri, a wandering philosopher. He cannot save his life, go against the power of Kaifa. Yeshua is executed.
3. Berlioz's death under the wheels of a tram. A homeless man pursues his entourage unsuccessfully.
4. The retinue settles in apartment No. 50, building 302 bis on Sadovaya Street. Disappearance of Styopa Likhodeev, director of the Variety Theater, and chairman of the Bosogo House. Bosogo is arrested, and Likhodeev ends up in Yalta.
5. That same evening, on the Variety stage, Woland and his retinue give a wonderful performance, which ends in a huge scandal.
6. Ivan Bezdomny meets with the Master in a psychiatric hospital. The master tells him his story: about the novel about Pontius Pilate, about Margarita.
7. Margarita meets with Azazello, who hands her the ointment. Having smeared herself, Margarita turns into a witch and flies away from the house. She must hold Satan's annual ball.
8. The worst sinners come to the ball - traitors, murderers, executioners. After the ball, in gratitude, Woland fulfills Margarita's wish and returns the Master to her.
9. The work of Yeshua is continued by his disciple Levi Matthew.
10. At the end of the novel, Margarita and the Master leave with Boland and receive peace. And Moscow still cannot come to its senses for a long time from the strange and incredible events that occurred this week.

Bulgakov, Analysis of the work The Master and Margarita, Plan

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Analysis of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"

In 1928, M.A. Bulgakov began the novel “The Master and Margarita” (which did not yet have this title). Brought to the 15th chapter, the novel was destroyed by the author himself in 1930, and started anew in 1932 or 1933. In subsequent years, work proceeded in fits and starts. In 1937, returning once again to the beginning of the novel, the author first wrote in title page the title that became final, “The Master and Margarita,” set the dates: 1928-1937 - and never stopped working on it. In 1939, important changes were made to the end of the novel and an epilogue was added. But then the terminally ill Bulgakov dictated amendments to the text to his wife, Elena Sergeevna. The extensiveness of insertions and amendments in the first part and at the beginning of the second suggests that no less work was to be done further, but the author did not have time to complete it. After Bulgakov's death, eight editions of the novel remained in his archive.

This book reigns in the happy freedom of creative imagination and at the same time the rigor of the compositional concept. Satan rules the great ball there and the inspired Master, a contemporary of the author, writes his immortal novel. There, the procurator of Judea sends Christ to execution, and nearby the citizens inhabiting the Garden and Bronnaya streets of Moscow of the 20s and 30s of the last century are fussing and berating. Laughter and sadness, joy and pain are mixed together, just like in life. "The Master and Margarita" is a lyrical and philosophical poem in prose about love and moral duty, about the inhumanity of evil, about true creativity, which is always an overcoming of inhumanity, always strives for light and good.

The idea for the book took shape gradually. The novel grew slowly. Critic I. Vinogradov called an article about the novel “a master’s testament.” Bulgakov himself in a letter to his wife, who became the prototype main character“The Master and Margarita,” back in 1938, almost two years before his death, said about his work: “The last sunset novel.”

The action begins “one spring, at the hour of an unprecedentedly hot sunset, in Moscow, on the Patriarch’s Ponds.” Satan and his retinue appear in the white-stone capital. The history of the four-day tour of that force “that always wants evil and always does good” gives the novel a plot point, the possibility of its rapid development in time.

Diaboliada - one of Bulgakov's favorite motifs - here plays a completely realistic role and can serve as an example of a grotesque-fantastic, satirical exposure of the contradictions of living reality. Woland sweeps over Bulgakov's Moscow like a thunderstorm, punishing mockery and dishonesty. Otherworldliness and mysticism somehow don’t fit in with this Messiah. If there was no such Woland, then he had to be invented.

A fantastic turn of events allows the writer to unfold before us a whole gallery of characters of a very unsightly kind. A sudden meeting with evil spirits turns the appearance of all these Berliozs, Brass, Maigels, Aloiziev Mogarychs, Nikanor Ivanovichs and others inside out. The black magic session that Woland and his assistants give at the capital’s Variety Show literally and figuratively “undresses” some citizens from the audience . But at the same time, the targets are strictly selective; they are internally oriented by the author’s ethics. The critic P. Palievsky correctly noted: “Nowhere did Vodand, Bulgakov’s Prince of Darkness, touch the one who creates honor, lives by it and advances. But he immediately seeps into the place where the gap is left for him, where they retreated, disintegrated and 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”...

And Master, main character Bulgakov's book, who created the novel about Christ and Pilate, is also far from religiosity in the Christian sense of the word. He wrote a book of enormous psychological expressiveness based on historical material. This “novel within a novel” seems to collect ethical contradictions that every generation of people, every thinking and suffering person must resolve with their lives. Two novels - The Master and about the Master - are mirrored to each other, and the play of reflections and parallels gives birth to an artistic whole, connecting legend and everyday life in historical life person. Among the characters in the book, Pontius Pilate, the fifth procurator of Judea, a man in a white cloak with bloody lining, is especially memorable. The story of his cowardice and repentance is approaching in its own way artistic power To best pages world prose.

"Master and Margarita" - complex work. Criticism has already noted the excessive subjectivity of Bulgakov's view of contemporary reality, which was reflected in the satirical chapters of the novel. K. Simonov wrote: “When reading “The Master and Margarita,” people of older generations immediately notice that the main field for Bulgakov’s satirical observations was the Moscow philistine, including the literary and theatrical environment of the 20s, with its, as they said then , “burps of NEP”.

It should be added that another Moscow of that time, another, more wide field there is almost no sense of observation in the novel. And this is one of the examples that speaks to the limited views of the writer on modernity. We sometimes hesitate to say the words “limited vision” when talking about great talent. And in vain. For they, without detracting from talent, reflect reality; help to understand the real place of the writer in the history of literature.”

The master could not win. By making him a winner, Bulgakov would have violated the laws of artistic truth and betrayed his sense of realism. The novel is optimistic. Leaving this mortal world, the Master leaves in it his student, who sees the same dreams as him, raves about the same images of world history and culture, shares his philosophical ideas, believes in the same ideals of a universal human scale...

The Master’s student, his ideological successor and spiritual heir, now an employee of the Institute of History and Philosophy, Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, former Homeless, “knows and understands everything” - in history, in the world, and in life. “He knows that in his youth he was a victim of criminal hypnotists, was treated after that and was cured.” Now he is the Master himself. Bulgakov showed that the acquisition of intelligence occurs through the accumulation of knowledge, through intense intellectual, spiritual work, through the assimilation cultural traditions humanity, through deliverance from the spell of “black magic”, “criminal hypnotists”.

The heroes of “The Master and Margarita” escaped into the vastness of eternity and found themselves in the endless space of world history. And this indicates that no powerful forces have power over those who are the masters of their thoughts and their work, who have mastery. The master lives in a world without social, national and temporal boundaries; his interlocutors are Jesus Christ, Kant, Goethe, Dostoevsky... He is a contemporary and interlocutor of the immortals, because he is an equal with them.

There will still be a lot of thinking and writing about The Master and Margarita. The book is controversial; the reader will not agree with all of its ideas. But he will not remain indifferent. He will read it, crying and laughing, and perhaps it will awaken in his soul powers that he had never thought of before. In Bulgakov, the world of eternal human values, historical truth, creative search, and conscience is opposed to the world of formalism, soulless bureaucracy, self-interest, and immorality. And above all - love. The Master lives by love, and Bulgakov lives by love. The poor prophet of Ancient Judea, Yeshua Ha-Nozri, also preaches love.

“Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no real, true, eternal love? May the liar's vile tongue be cut out!

Follow me, my reader, and only me, and I will show you such love!”

Bulgakov's novel, like all the great, eternal books of mankind, is dedicated to the omnipotence and invincibility of love. Manuscripts inspired by love, glorifying love, carrying with them a rush of love are indestructible and eternal. Truly, as Woland said, addressing the Master, “manuscripts do not burn.” Bulgakov tried to burn his manuscript, but this did not bring him relief. The novel continued to live, the Master remembered it by heart. The manuscript has been restored. After the death of the writer, it came to us and soon found readers in many countries around the world.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is central work of all the creativity of M.A. Bulgakov. This novel has an interesting artistic structure. The novel takes place in three storylines. This is both a realistic world of Moscow life and the world of Yershalaim, which takes the reader to distant events and times, as well as fantasy world Woland and his entire retinue. Of particular interest is the analysis of the novel "The Master and Margarita", with the help of which you can better feel the entire philosophical significance of this work.

Genre originality of the novel

In terms of its genre, The Master and Margarita is a novel. Its genre originality is revealed as follows: socio-philosophical, fantastic, satirical novel in the novel. This work is social because it reflects the last years of the NEP in the USSR. The scene of action is Moscow, not academic, not ministerial and not party-government, but philistine, communal.

Over the course of three days in Moscow, Woland and his entire retinue study the customs of the most ordinary Soviet people. According to the plan of communist ideologists, these people were supposed to represent new type citizens who are free from social disadvantages and diseases.

Satire in the work "The Master and Margarita"

The life of Moscow inhabitants in the novel is described by the author extremely satirically. Here devilry punishes careerists, grabbers, schemers. They “flourished magnificently”, taking advantage of the “healthy soil of Soviet society.”

The author gives a description of the spiritual life of society in parallel with a satirical depiction of swindlers. First of all, Bulgakov was interested in literary life Moscow. Prominent representatives of the creative intelligentsia in this work are the literary official Mikhail Berlioz, who inspires the young members of MOSSOLIT, as well as the semi-literate and extremely self-confident Ivan Bezdomny, who considers himself a poet. The satirical depiction of cultural figures is based on the fact that their greatly inflated self-esteem does not correspond to their creative achievements.

The philosophical meaning of the novel "The Master and Margarita"

Analysis of the work shows great philosophical content novel. Here are scenes from ancient times intertwined with a description of Soviet reality. From the relationship between the procurator of Judea Pontius Pilate, the all-powerful governor of Rome, and the poor preacher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, the philosophical and moral content of this work by Bulgakov is revealed. It is in the clashes of these heroes that the author sees a vivid manifestation of the combat of the ideas of evil and good. Elements of fantasy help Bulgakov more fully reveal the ideological concept of the work.

Analysis of an episode of the novel

Analysis of the episode "The Master and Margarita" can help you feel more deeply this work. One of the most dynamic and striking episodes of the novel is Margarita's flight over Moscow. Margarita’s goal is to meet Woland. Before this meeting, she was allowed to fly over the city. Margarita was overcome by an amazing feeling of flight. The wind liberated her thoughts, thanks to which Margarita was transformed in the most amazing way. Now the reader is faced with the image not of the timid Margarita, a hostage of the situation, but of herself real witch with a fiery temperament, ready to commit any crazy act.

Flying past one of the houses, Margarita looks into open windows and sees two women arguing over everyday trifles. Margarita says: “You are both good,” which indicates that the heroine will no longer be able to return to such an empty life. She became alien to her.

Then Margarita’s attention was attracted by the eight-story “Dramlit House”. Margarita learns that this is where Latunsky lives. Immediately after this, the heroine’s perky disposition develops into a witch’s frenzy. It was this man who killed Margarita’s lover. She begins to take revenge on Latunsky, and his apartment turns into a water-filled mess of broken furniture and broken glass. Nothing can stop and calm Margarita at this moment. So, the heroine transfers to the world its heartbreaking state. In this case, the reader encounters an example of the use of alliteration: “shards ran down,” “real rain began,” “whistled furiously,” “the doorman ran out.” Analysis of "The Master and Margarita" allows us to delve deeper into the hidden meaning of the work.

Suddenly, the witch's excesses come to an end. She sees in the third floor window little boy in the crib. The frightened child evokes in Margarita the maternal feelings inherent in every woman. Together with them she experiences awe and tenderness. Yes, her state of mind After the mind-blowing defeat it returns to normal. She leaves Moscow very relaxed and with a sense of accomplishment. It is easy to see the parallelism in the description of Margarita’s surroundings and mood.

The heroine behaves fiercely and furiously, being in a bustling city in which life does not stop for a single minute. But as soon as Margarita finds herself surrounded by dewy meadows, ponds and green forests, she gains peace of mind and balance. Now she is flying slowly, smoothly, reveling in the flight and having the opportunity to enjoy all the charm of a moonlit night.

This analysis of the episode of "The Master and Margarita" shows that this episode plays an important role in the novel. Here the reader observes the complete rebirth of Margarita. She urgently needs it to perform actions in the future.

Bulgakov worked on the novel “The Master and Margarita” for about 12 years and did not have time to finally edit it. This novel became a real revelation of the writer; Bulgakov himself said that this was his main message to humanity, a testament to his descendants.

Many books have been written about this novel. Among researchers of Bulgakov's creative heritage, there is an opinion that this work is a kind of political treatise. In Woland they saw Stalin and his retinue was identified with political figures of that time. However, consider the novel “The Master and Margarita” only from this point of view and see in it only political satire it wouldn't be right.

Some literary scholars believe that the main meaning of this mystical work is eternal struggle between good and evil. According to Bulgakov, it turns out that evil on Earth must always be in balance. Yeshua and Woland personify precisely these two spiritual principles. One of the key phrases of the novel were the words of Woland, which he uttered when addressing Levi Matvey: “Wouldn’t it be so kind to think about the question: what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would it look like if it disappeared? shadows?

In the novel, evil, in the person of Woland, ceases to be humane and fair. Good and evil are intertwined and are in close interaction, especially in human souls. Woland punished people with evil for evil for the sake of justice.

It is not for nothing that some critics have drawn an analogy between Bulgakov’s novel and the story of Faust, although in “The Master and Margarita” the situation is presented inverted. Faust sold his soul to the devil and betrayed Margarita's love for the sake of his thirst for knowledge, and in Bulgakov's novel Margarita makes a deal with the devil for the sake of love for the Master.

Fight for man

The inhabitants of Bulgakov's Moscow appear before the reader as a collection of puppets, tormented by passions. It is of great importance in the Variety Show, where Woland sits down in front of the audience and begins to talk about the fact that people do not change for centuries.

Against the background of this faceless mass, only the Master and Margarita are deeply aware of how the world works and who rules it.

The image of the Master is collective and autobiographical. The reader does not know his real name. The master is represented by any artist, as well as a person who has his own vision of the world. Margarita is an image ideal woman who is able to love to the end, despite difficulties and obstacles. They are perfect collective images a man dedicated to his work and a woman true to her feelings.

Thus, the meaning of this immortal novel can be divided into three layers.

Above everything stands the confrontation between Woland and Yeshua, who, together with their students and retinue, wage a continuous struggle for the immortal human soul, playing with the destinies of people.

Just below are people like the Master and Margarita; later they are joined by the Master’s student, Professor Ponyrev. These people are spiritually more mature, who realize that life is much more complicated than it seems at first glance.

And finally, at the very bottom are the ordinary inhabitants of Bulgakov’s Moscow. They have no will and strive only for material values.

Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” serves as a constant warning against inattention to oneself, against blindly following the established order of things, to the detriment of awareness of one’s own personality.

Sources:

• The theme of good and evil in Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita"
• The meaning of the title of the novel "The Master and Margarita"
• The main idea of ​​the novel "The Master and Margarita"

Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" is one of best books, written in the 20th century in Russian. Unfortunately, the novel was published many years after the writer’s death, and many of the mysteries encrypted by the author in the book remained unsolved.

Devil on the Patriarch's

Bulgakov began work on the novel, dedicated to the appearance of the Devil in Moscow in the 1930s, in 1929 and continued until his death in 1940, without completing the author's edits. The book was published only in 1966, thanks to the fact that Mikhail Afanasyevich’s widow, Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova, kept the manuscript. The plot, or rather, all of it hidden meanings, are still the subject of scientific research and debate among literary scholars.

“The Master and Margarita” is included in the list of the hundred best books of the 20th century according to the French periodical Le Monde.

The text begins with the fact that by two Soviet writers While talking on the Patriarch's Ponds, a foreigner approaches, who turns out to be Satan. It turns out that the Devil (he introduces himself by the name Woland) travels all over the world, periodically stopping in various cities along with his retinue. Once in Moscow, Woland and his henchmen punish people for their petty sins and passions. The images of bribe takers and swindlers are drawn by Bulgakov masterfully, and the victims of Satan do not evoke sympathy at all. So, for example, the fate of Woland’s first two interlocutors is extremely unpleasant: one of them dies under a tram, and the second ends up in an insane asylum, where he meets a man who calls himself the Master.

The master tells Woland’s victim his story, in particular, saying that at one time he was talking about Pontius Pilate, because of whom he ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Moreover, he remembers romantic story his love for a woman named Margarita. At the same time, one of the representatives of Woland’s retinue turns to Margarita with a request to become the queen of Satan’s Ball, which is held annually by Woland in various capitals. Margarita agrees in exchange for the Master being returned to her. The novel ends with a scene of all the main characters from Moscow, and the Master and Margarita find the peace they dreamed of.

From Moscow to Jerusalem

In parallel with the “Moscow” plot line, the “Yershalaim” line is developing, that is, in fact, the novel about Pontius Pilate. From Moscow in the 30s, the reader is transported to Jerusalem at the beginning of our era, where tragic events take place, described in the New Testament and reinterpreted by Bulgakov. The author tries to understand the motives of the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, who sent the philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, whose prototype is Jesus Christ, to execution. In the final part of the book, the storylines intersect, and each hero gets what he deserves.

There are many film adaptations of Bulgakov’s novel, both in Russia and abroad. In addition, the text has inspired many musicians, artists and playwrights.

“The Master and Margarita” is a novel at the intersection of genres. Of course, in the foreground is satirical image morals and way of life of the inhabitants of Moscow contemporary to Bulgakov, but in addition to this, the text contains various mystical symbols, moral confusion, and reveals the theme of retribution for sins and misdeeds.

One of the properties of literature is the desire to synthesize all available information. this moment its achievements, generalize, bring into the system. As an example, we can recall “The Glass Bead Game” by Hesse, “Doctor Faustus” by Mann, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoevsky.

General information

The history of the creation of the novel “The Master and Margarita” is still shrouded in secrets, however, like the novel itself, which never ceases to be the center of mysteries for the reader. It is not even known exactly when Bulgakov had the idea of ​​writing a work that is now known as “The Master and Margarita” (this title appeared in Bulgakov’s drafts relatively shortly before the creation of final version novel).

The time it took Bulgakov from the ripening of the idea to the final version of the novel was ultimately about ten years, which indicates the care with which Bulgakov took on the novel and what significance it apparently had for him. And Bulgakov seemed to have foreseen everything in advance, because “The Master and Margarita” became the last work he wrote. Bulgakov did not even have time to complete the literary editing of the novel; it stopped somewhere in the area of ​​the second part.

Conceptual question

Initially, Bulgakov chose the image of the devil (the future Woland) to replace the main character of his new novel. The first several editions of the novel were created under the banner of this idea. It should be noted that each of the four famous editors can be considered as an independent novel, since they all contain many fundamental differences at both the formal and semantic levels. Familiar to the reader main image– the image of the Master was introduced into the novel by Bulgakov only in the fourth, final edition, and this itself ultimately determined the main concept of the novel, which initially contained a bias more towards , however, the Master as the main character with his “appearance” forced Bulgakov to reconsider his prospects novel and give the main place to the theme of art, culture, and the place of the artist in the modern world.

Work on the novel took so long, probably not only because the concept was not finalized and changed, but also due to the fact that the novel was intended by Bulgakov himself as a final work, summarizing his entire path in the field of art, and in connection with this the novel has a rather complex structure, it is filled a huge amount explicit and implicit cultural allusions, references at each and every level of the novel’s poetics.