The master burns his novel passage. Works. Acceptance of the absence of a proper name in the name of a character

One of the most enigmatic figures in the novel is definitely the Master. The hero, whose name is given to the novel, appears only in the 13th chapter. In the description of appearance there is something reminiscent of the author of the novel himself: "a clean-shaven, dark-haired, pointed-nosed man of about thirty-eight." The same can be said about the whole history of the life of the master, his fate, in which one can guess a lot of personal, suffered by the author. The master survived non-recognition, persecution in the literary environment. The master, in his unexpected, sincere, bold novel about Pilate and Yeshua, expressed the author's understanding of the truth. The Master's novel, the meaning of his whole life, is not accepted by society. Moreover, it is strongly rejected by critics, even when unpublished. The master wanted to convey to people the need for faith, the need to search for the truth. But she, like him, is rejected. Society is alien to thinking about the truth, about the truth - about those higher categories, the significance of which everyone must realize for himself. People are busy satisfying petty needs, they do not struggle with their weaknesses and shortcomings, they easily succumb to temptations, which the session of black magic so eloquently speaks of. It is not surprising that in such a society a creative, thinking person is lonely, does not find understanding, feedback.

Master's initial reaction to critical articles about himself - laughter - was replaced by surprise, and then fear. Faith in oneself and, even worse, in one's creation is lost. Margarita feels the fear and confusion of her lover, but she is powerless to help him. No, he didn't get scared. Cowardice is fear multiplied by meanness. Bulgakov's hero did not compromise his conscience and honor. But fear has a destructive effect on the artist's soul.

Whatever the experiences of the Master, no matter how bitter his fate, but one thing is indisputable - the "literary society" fails to kill the talent. The proof of the aphorism “manuscripts do not burn” is the novel The Master and Margarita itself, burned by Bulgakov himself and restored by him, because what was created by a genius cannot be killed.

The master is not worthy of the light that Yeshua personifies, because he retreated from his task to serve pure, divine art, showed weakness and burned the novel, and from hopelessness he himself came to the house of sorrow. But the world of the devil has no power over him - the Master is worthy of peace, an eternal home - only there, broken by mental suffering, the Master can regain romance and unite with his romantic beloved Margarita. For the peace bestowed upon the master is creative peace. The moral ideal laid down in the Master's novel is not subject to decay, and is beyond the power of otherworldly forces.

It is peace as a counterbalance to the former turbulent life that the soul of a true artist longs for. There is no return to the modern Moscow world for the Master: by depriving him of the opportunity to create, the opportunity to see his beloved, the enemies deprived him of the meaning of life in this world. The master gets rid of fear of life and alienation, remains with his beloved woman, alone with his work and surrounded by his heroes: “You will fall asleep, putting on your greasy and eternal cap, you will fall asleep with a smile on your lips. Sleep will strengthen you, you will reason wisely. And you won't be able to drive me away. I will take care of your sleep,” Margarita said to the Master, and the sand rustled under her bare feet.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is a work that reflects philosophical, and therefore eternal themes. Love and betrayal, good and evil, truth and lies, amaze with their duality, reflecting the inconsistency and, at the same time, the fullness of human nature. Mystification and romanticism, framed in the writer's elegant language, captivate with a depth of thought that requires repeated reading.

Tragically and ruthlessly, a difficult period of Russian history appears in the novel, unfolding in such a homespun side that the devil himself visits the halls of the capital in order to once again become a prisoner of the Faustian thesis about a force that always wants evil, but does good.

History of creation

In the first edition of 1928 (according to some sources, 1929), the novel was flatter, and it was not difficult to single out specific topics, but after almost a decade and as a result of difficult work, Bulgakov came to a complexly structured, fantastic, but because of this no less life story.

Along with this, being a man overcoming difficulties hand in hand with his beloved woman, the writer managed to find a place for the nature of feelings more subtle than vanity. Fireflies of hope leading the main characters through diabolical trials. So the novel in 1937 was given the final title: The Master and Margarita. And that was the third edition.

But the work continued almost until the death of Mikhail Afanasyevich, he made the last revision on February 13, 1940, and died on March 10 of the same year. The novel is considered unfinished, as evidenced by numerous notes in the drafts kept by the writer's third wife. It was thanks to her that the world saw the work, albeit in an abridged magazine version, in 1966.

The author's attempts to bring the novel to its logical conclusion testify to how important it was for him. Bulgakov burned out the last of his strength into the idea of ​​​​creating a wonderful and tragic phantasmagoria. It clearly and harmoniously reflected his own life in a narrow room, like a stocking, where he fought the disease and came to realize the true values ​​​​of human existence.

Analysis of the work

Description of the work

(Berlioz, Ivan the homeless and Woland between them)

The action begins with a description of the meeting of two Moscow writers with the devil. Of course, neither Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz nor Ivan the homeless even suspect who they are talking to on a May day at the Patriarch's Ponds. In the future, Berlioz dies according to Woland's prophecy, and Messire himself occupies his apartment in order to continue his practical jokes and hoaxes.

Ivan the homeless, in turn, becomes a patient in a psychiatric hospital, unable to cope with the impressions of meeting with Woland and his retinue. In the house of sorrow, the poet meets the Master, who wrote a novel about the procurator of Judea, Pilate. Ivan learns that the metropolitan world of critics is cruel to objectionable writers and begins to understand a lot about literature.

Margarita, a childless woman of thirty, the wife of a prominent specialist, yearns for the disappeared Master. Ignorance brings her to despair, in which she admits to herself that she is ready to give her soul to the devil, just to find out about the fate of her beloved. One of Woland's retinue members, the waterless desert demon Azazello, delivers a miraculous cream to Margarita, thanks to which the heroine turns into a witch in order to play the role of a queen at Satan's ball. Having overcome some torment with dignity, the woman receives the fulfillment of her desire - a meeting with the Master. Woland returns to the writer the manuscript burned during the persecution, proclaiming a deeply philosophical thesis that "manuscripts do not burn."

In parallel, a storyline develops about Pilate, a novel written by the Master. The story tells of the arrested wandering philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, who was betrayed by Judas of Kiriath, handing over to the authorities. The procurator of Judea administers judgment within the walls of the palace of Herod the Great and is forced to execute a man whose ideas, which are disdainful of the power of Caesar, and power in general, seem to him interesting and worthy of discussion, if not fair. Having coped with his duty, Pilate orders Aphranius, the head of the secret service, to kill Judas.

The plot lines are combined in the last chapters of the novel. One of Yeshua's disciples, Levi Matthew, visits Woland with a petition to grant peace to those in love. That same night, Satan and his retinue leave the capital, and the devil gives the Master and Margarita eternal shelter.

main characters

Let's start with the dark forces appearing in the first chapters.

Woland's character is somewhat different from the canonical embodiment of evil in its purest form, although in the first edition he was assigned the role of a tempter. In the process of processing material on satanic topics, Bulgakov molded the image of a player with unlimited power to decide fate, endowed, at the same time, with omniscience, skepticism and a bit of playful curiosity. The author deprived the hero of any props, such as hooves or horns, and also removed most of the description of the appearance that took place in the second edition.

Moscow serves Woland as a stage on which, by the way, he does not leave any fatal destruction. Woland is called by Bulgakov as a higher power, a measure of human actions. He is a mirror that reflects the essence of other characters and society, mired in denunciations, deceit, greed and hypocrisy. And, like any mirror, messire gives people who think and tend to justice the opportunity to change for the better.

An image with an elusive portrait. Outwardly, the features of Faust, Gogol and Bulgakov himself intertwined in him, since the mental pain caused by harsh criticism and non-recognition caused the writer a lot of problems. The master is conceived by the author as a character whom the reader rather feels as if he is dealing with a close, dear person, and does not see him as an outsider through the prism of a deceptive appearance.

The master remembers little about life before meeting his love - Margarita, as if he did not really live. The biography of the hero bears a clear imprint of the events of the life of Mikhail Afanasyevich. Only the ending the writer came up with for the hero is lighter than he himself experienced.

A collective image that embodies the female courage to love in spite of circumstances. Margarita is attractive, brash and desperate in her quest to reunite with the Master. Without her, nothing would have happened, because through her prayers, so to speak, a meeting with Satan took place, her determination led to a great ball, and only thanks to her uncompromising dignity did the two main tragic heroes meet.
If we look back at Bulgakov’s life again, it’s easy to note that without Elena Sergeevna, the writer’s third wife, who worked on his manuscripts for twenty years and followed him during her lifetime, like a faithful, but expressive shadow, ready to put enemies and ill-wishers out of the light, it wouldn’t have happened either. publication of the novel.

Woland's retinue

(Woland and his retinue)

The retinue includes Azazello, Koroviev-Fagot, Behemoth Cat and Hella. The latter is a female vampire and occupies the lowest rung in the demonic hierarchy, a minor character.
The first is the prototype of the demon of the desert, he plays the role of Woland's right hand. So Azazello ruthlessly kills Baron Meigel. In addition to the ability to kill, Azazello skillfully seduces Margarita. In some way, this character was introduced by Bulgakov in order to remove characteristic behavioral habits from the image of Satan. In the first edition, the author wanted to name Woland Azazel, but changed his mind.

(Bad apartment)

Koroviev-Fagot is also a demon, and an older one, but a buffoon and a clown. His task is to confuse and mislead the venerable public. The character helps the author provide the novel with a satirical component, ridiculing the vices of society, crawling into such cracks where the seducer Azazello will not get. At the same time, in the finale, he turns out to be not at all a joker in essence, but a knight punished for an unsuccessful pun.

The cat Behemoth is the best of jesters, a werewolf, a demon prone to gluttony, every now and then making a stir in the life of Muscovites with his comical adventures. The prototypes were definitely cats, both mythological and quite real. For example, Flyushka, who lived in the Bulgakovs' house. The writer's love for the animal, on behalf of which he sometimes wrote notes to his second wife, migrated to the pages of the novel. The werewolf reflects the tendency of the intelligentsia to transform, as the writer himself did, receiving a fee and spending it on buying delicacies in the Torgsin store.

"The Master and Margarita" is a unique literary creation that has become a weapon in the hands of the writer. With his help, Bulgakov dealt with the hated social vices, including those to which he himself was subject. He was able to express his experience through the phrases of the characters, which became a household name. In particular, the statement about manuscripts goes back to the Latin proverb "Verba volant, scripta manent" - "words fly away, what is written remains." After all, burning the manuscript of the novel, Mikhail Afanasyevich could not forget what he had previously created and returned to work on the work.

The idea of ​​a novel in a novel allows the author to lead two large storylines, gradually bringing them together in the timeline until they intersect "beyond", where fiction and reality are already indistinguishable. Which, in turn, raises the philosophical question of the significance of human thoughts, against the background of the emptiness of words that fly away with the noise of bird wings during the game of Behemoth and Woland.

Bulgakov's novel is destined to go through time, like the heroes themselves, in order to again and again touch on important aspects of human social life, religion, issues of moral and ethical choice and the eternal struggle between good and evil.

In the novel, the image of the Master is one of the main characters. This is also emphasized by the author's decision to capture it in the title of the work. The characteristic of the master in the novel "The Master and Margarita" is the opposition of a pure and sincere soul that knows how to love, feel and create to modern society.

Acceptance of the absence of a proper name in the name of a character

The reader is presented with a man "with a sharp nose, anxious eyes ... about thirty-eight years old." This is the portrait of the master. The Master and Margarita is a rather controversial novel. One of the contradictions is the name of the hero.

To create an image, Mikhail Bulgakov uses a fairly common technique - the namelessness of the hero. However, if in many works the absence of a proper name in the name of a character is explained only by the collective nature of the image, in the novel The Master and Margarita this technique has a more extended purpose and a specific idea. The namelessness of the hero is underlined twice in the text. For the first time, he accepted what his beloved called him - a master. The second time in a clinic for the mentally ill, in a conversation with the poet Bezdomny, he himself emphasizes the renunciation of the name. He admits that he lost it and became Patient 118 of the First Corps.

The individuality of the Master's personality

Of course, in the image of the Master, Bulgakov showed a generalized image of a real writer. At the same time, the name of the hero as the Master also emphasizes his individuality, peculiarity, difference from others. He is opposed to the writers of MOSSOLIT, who think about money, dachas and restaurants. In addition, the theme of his novel is non-standard. The master understood that his creation would cause controversy and even criticism, but he still created a novel about Pilate. That is why in the work he is not just a writer, he is a Master.

However, in manuscripts and personal documents, contrary to the rules to write the character's name with a capital letter, Bulgakov always indicated it with a small letter, thereby emphasizing the hero's impossibility to resist the system and values ​​of his contemporary society, to become a famous Soviet writer.

Happy ticket

The life of the Master in the novel "The Master and Margarita" has several stages. When the reader is allowed to get acquainted with this character, he seems to be a very fortunate person. A historian by training, he works in a museum. Having won 100 thousand rubles, he leaves his permanent place of work, rents a cozy basement with a garden outside the window and starts writing a novel.

The main gift of fate

Over time, fate presents him with another surprise - true love. The acquaintance of the Master and Margarita takes place as a given, as an inevitable fate, the handwriting of which both understood. “Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and hit us both at once!

This is how lightning strikes, this is how a Finnish knife strikes! - the Master recalled in the clinic.

A period of despair and hopelessness

However, luck fades from the moment the novel is written. They don't want to publish it. Then the beloved persuades him not to give up. The master continues to look for opportunities to give out the book. And when an excerpt from his novel was published in one of the literary magazines, mountains of cruel, destructive criticism rained down on him. When the work of his life failed, the Master, despite the persuasion and love of Margarita, does not find the strength to fight. He surrenders to the invincible system and finds himself in a mental hospital of Professor Stravinsky. There begins the next stage of his life - a period of humility and longing.

The reader sees his state in a dialogue with the Homeless, when the Master secretly entered him at night. He calls himself ill, doesn't want to write anymore, and regrets having written a novel about Pilate at all. He does not want to restore it, and also does not strive to go free and find Margarita, so as not to spoil her life, secretly hoping that she has already forgotten him.

The story of the poet Bezdomny about the meeting with Woland revives the Master somewhat. But he only regrets that he did not meet with him. The master believes that he has lost everything, he has nowhere to go and no reason, although he has a bunch of keys, which he considers his most precious wealth. The characteristic of the Master of this period is the description of a broken and intimidated person, resigned to his useless existence.

Well-deserved rest

Unlike the Master, Margarita is more active. She is ready to do anything to save her lover. Thanks to her efforts, Woland brings him back from the clinic and restores the burnt manuscript of the novel about Pontius Pilate. However, even then the Master does not believe in possible happiness: "I was broken, I'm bored, and I want to go to the basement." He hopes that Margarita will come to her senses and leave him poor and unfortunate.

But against his wishes, Woland gives the novel to Yeshua to read, who, although he cannot take the Master to himself, asks Woland to do it. Although to a greater extent the Master appears passive, inactive and broken, he differs from the society of Muscovites of the 30s in selfless love, honesty, gullibility, kindness and selflessness. It is for these moral qualities and unique artistic talent that the higher powers give him another gift of fate - eternal peace and the company of his beloved woman. So, the story of the Master in the novel "The Master and Margarita" ends happily.

Artwork test

The image of the Master in Bulgakov's novel is largely autobiographical. By education, the Master is a historian, before the events described in the novel, he worked in a museum. Once he bought a lottery ticket and won a large sum. After that, the Master left his job and decided to make his dream come true: to write a novel about Pontius Pilate. It was at this time that the hero met Margarita - his love. This woman becomes the Master's assistant and his faithful companion. It was she who gave the hero the name Master, admiring his work and considering it truly talented. However, representatives of the literary environment think otherwise. When the Master finished his work and took it to the editor, the excerpt was printed. As a result, sharp persecution begins on the Master, as well as on Bulgakov himself.

The master could not withstand such an onslaught and burned the novel in the oven, after which he suffered a nervous attack. This happened in the absence of Margarita, not finding support from anyone, the Master goes to a psychiatric hospital.

The hero is not chosen from there soon, with the help of Margarita, who is helped by Woland and his retinue. For love, patience and devotion, the Master and Margarita are rewarded with peace. Their bodies die in Moscow, but their souls remain alive - they are transferred to another time, where the Master can create.

We meet the hero only a few times. We meet him in the chapter "The Appearance of the Hero" and understand that he will be the central figure of the novel. However, he is present in the work "in absentia". His image passes as a shadow through the entire plot of the novel, but the character himself rarely appears on the stage. The hero himself tells a little about himself: about the novel he wrote and burned, about his arrest and imprisonment in a clinic for the mentally ill. All other events from the life of the Master are illuminated by other heroes.

Woland releases the Master from the hospital room and allows Margarita to meet her lover. Azazello frees the hero from mortal life by poisoning the Master and Margarita. Heroes find eternal rest. The fate of the Master and Margarita lies at the heart of the plot of Bulgakov's novel, connects the disparate parts of the narrative in terms of plot, symbolism and events.

It is significant that the Master is rewarded with peace, but he did not deserve the light. At first glance, it seems that the reason for this is his interaction with Woland. But it's not. He created a novel about Pontius Pilate and the prototype of Christ - Yeshua Ha-Nozri. Yeshua defended his beliefs, he went to his death, but did not give them up, while the Master gave up, he renounced his creation, did not resist the difficulties that the novel brought him. Therefore, he is not worthy of the light, like Yeshua Ha-Nozri.