We can say from The Master and Margarita that while Jesus and Christianity is mentioned and relevant in the book, Bulgakov stays away from the sophisticated display of Jesus. What intrigues me is the Jesus that Bulgakov displays doesn’t like the secretary going after him almost in a secretive type of way. There are many sentences and some paragraphs about the nature of humans, atheism, totalitarianism, and humanity. The book weaves together satire and realism, art and religion, history and contemporary social values.
The book in a way is centering around the moral dilemma of Pilate or the enduring ove of the Master and Margarita. Many times in the book, Satan speaks to the Master and is present in other ways such as when the weather gets inclement. Bulgakov has Jesus explain what he’s worried about. The suspicion of the evangelists purposely giving a false display of Jesus’ words composed in the Bible. Jesus is in a way displayed as a foolish or gullible person. During Stalin’s regime, Woland comes to visit Moscow, he insists that God does exist and that the crucifixion of Christ did indeed take place.
Yet, even regardless of his theological arguments, he s a fascinating character: colorful, charming, enigmatic. This does not mean he isn’t the embodiment of ultimate evil, he can be as cruel and brutal as one could imagine. But he is certainly never dull or boring. We can say the secret police may be used to crush opposition, impose ideals on the masses, and create a sense of fear among civilians. He also uses shrewdly devised methods of control and persuasion, some of which are: terror, indoctrination, propaganda, censorship, and religious or ethnic persecution.
Individuality and unique talents were none but frowned upon unless used for the benefit of the state. In Russia, in the 1700’s and 1800’s, if you were left handed or deformed in any way, it was said to be a mark of the Devil and those people were executed. It makes me wonder if Satan is left handed or if he is deformed. For thousands of years, the Devil has been associated with the left hand in numerous ways and is usually displayed as being left-handed in pictures and other images.
In the seventeenth century, it was thought that the Devil baptized those who follow him with his left-hand and there are many references in superstitions to the “left-hand side” being associated with evil and sin. It’s also said, it’s bad to look over your left shoulder because that’s what the Devil does when he watches us. If you get out of bed with your left foot first, it is said that you will have a bad day. If your right ear is ringing, it is said that someone is praising you and if your left ear is ringing it means that someone is cursing or maligning you.
There is a quote that says, “I would pawn my soul to the devil to find out whether he is dead or alive in chapter 19. Margarita had a thought which acted as a trigger for Satan’s interference in her life. It is also prophetic, since she agrees to pawn her soul to Satan. There is another quote in chapter 24 that states, “Even at night, in moonlight, I have no rest. Why did they trouble me? Oh, gods, gods. ” Woland reads this passage aloud from the manuscript of the Master’s novel. The Master thought he had destroyed it by burning it, but Behemoth produces a copy.
Not only is this quotation significant because of the leitmotif, “Oh gods, gods.. ” it also mentions the moonlight, another link between the two worlds. Satan himself reading the words is significant, since the world of Pontius Pilate exists not only in the Master’s manuscript, but in Woland’s story and memory. In Chapter 29, there is a quote that says “What would your good be doing if evil did not exist and what would the world look like if shadows disappeared from it? Shadows, after all, are cast by people and objects.
My sword has a shadow, but there are also shadows of living creatures and trees. Would you like to expose the world of all of the trees and all of the living creatures and humans in order to please your false vision of celebrating in only the light? You are so ridiculous. Woland says that Satan is undoubtedly evil. He says there is some evil or shadows in everything and everyone. This is continuation of the onspicuous picture of the sun during Chapter 2 of Yeshua’s hearing. The sparrow is a symbol associated with Satan, and it is implied that it might be Satan in disguise.
In Chapter 2, “Pontius Pilate,” the sparrow darts into the colonnade and sweeps down, before disappearing behind a column. While it flies, Pilate decides that there is no need to sentence Yeshua to death. Right before he dictates this to his secretary, “The swallow’s wings flicked over the Hegemon’s head; the bird dated toward the bowl of the fountain, and escaped to freedom. ” In Chapter 3, “The Seventh Proof,” a sparrow comes “darting out of the linden ree above them” as Ivan insists to Woland that there is no devil.
In this case, the sparrow is a sign of the devil’s presence, since Woland is, in fact, standing right there while Ivan denies his existence. The theme of the sparrow returns in Chapter 18, representing the workings of the devil, or the presence of the devil himself, when Kuzmin finds a sparrow hopping on his desk. We all know that there is good and bad in everyone. The dichotomy of good and evil is as old as the story of the world, and timeless in its relevance to just about everything we do in life, from our political and spiritual views to our taste in music, rt, and literature to how we think about our simple dietary choices.
But while most of us recognize that these concepts of good and bad aren’t always black-and-white categories, we never cease to be surprised when someone or something we’ve perceived as “good” does or becomes something we perceive as “bad,” from an esteemed politician’s transgression to a beloved celebrity’s slip into addiction or Scientology or otherwise socially undesirable behavior.
In the epilogue, the narrator refers to himself as a character interacting with the citizens of Moscow: “The author of these ruthful lines has himself heard in a train, during a journey to Feodosiya, a story of how two thousand persons had come out of a theater stark naked in the most literal sense of the word and gone home in taxis as they were. ” The use of third person is significant, as it implies that the narrator is only a character reporting events, rather than omniscient.
There is also an obvious irony to the phrase “these truthful lines. ” Irony characterizes the tone in which the narrator describes ne conclusions of the investigating commission. He reports that, “Again and again, due justice must be rendered the nvestigating commission. It had done everything possible not only to catch the criminals but also to explain everything they had done. And, indeed, everything was explained, and the explanations must be recognized as both sensible and irrefutable.
It is true that the explanations must be recognized as true, but the narrator and the reader both know they are untrue. The narrator reports that it is discovered that Margarita has disappeared, and it is suspected that she and Natasha might have been abducted by a gang of murderers; the same is suspected for the Master. But at the end of chapter 30, Azazello atches Margarita clutch at her heart and die in her home, calling for Natasha, and the Master was found dead in the hospital.
Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrev and Nikolay Ivanovich are tied to Pilate in the Epilogue, since they are both plagued by the moon. When it is the full spring moon, Ivan cannot rest, and wanders without knowing why to the home of Nikolay Ivanovich. While he watches him mumbling at the moon, Ivan says, “Gods, gods,” a leitmotif also tied to Pilate. When the Master look Pilate, he sees he is finally able to go on the path up of moonlight with Banga and he asks Woland where he and Margarita should go next. The quote is his answer. He describes peace, not necessarily light.
There is a quote in the epilogue that states, “But what is most terrifying is not the executioner, but the unnatural light in the dream, coming from a cloud that is boiling and tumbling on the earth, as always at moments of world catastrophe. ” The behavior of the weather is explained in the Epilogue, when Ivan dreams of the execution of Yesha Ha-Nozri. This description is of the cloud that came over the city during the execution, but a cloud also came over the earth when Margarita and the Master departed with Woland and his cronies.
