The Master and Margarita Summary Sample
How come Bulgakov make an effort to convince the readers the events happenning in Moscow are fiction and those in Yershalaim were real?
A novel The Master and Margarita published by Mikhail Bulgakov, a great composer of 20th century, is a masterpiece of the literature of the world scale which relates to questions of ethics. It criticizes the Soviet Union’s policies considering them in the spiritual perspective.
Bulgakov’s novel is quite complicated, its fragments are written in several genres in general this novel is understood to be a satire. It can be sensed “in the special tone of Bulgakov’s writing, a mixed combination of laughter (satire, caricature, buffoonery) and the absolute most unguarded vulnerability” (Pevear, 2). It has 2 plot lines. They've been rather independent from one another but along with slightly visible connections. The very first line is placed in contemporary Moscow and portrays many characters including such central as Master (writer) and Margarita, the poet Ivan Homeless as well as other. The second line unfolds in Jershalaim (ancient Jerusalem). Main characters acting here are Pontius Pilate and Jeshua-ha-Nozri. Besides these two lines novel includes storyline of Woland (Satan) and his retinue who, on usually the one hand, cause havoc in Moscow and, on the other hand, are invisibly present during events that happened in Jerusalem. Finally, the Jerusalem line interweaves with the Moscow line at the last scene joining its characters.
The Moscow line is concerned with the authority, material dilemmas of Moscowians. Bulgakov was dissatisfied with the whole situation in Soviet Union with the fact that his novel wasn’t published. By arranging of various scenes of havoc Woland is trying to spell out people “that man doesn't govern the entire world – even though he often thinks that he does” (from conversation with Ivan Homeless at the Patriarch Ponds) (Wright, 263). Woland is attempting to tell the truth using fantasy.
In the second line Bulgakov considers the topic of man’s power from the spiritual point. As Yeshua explains: “every type of authority means coercion over man and … a period will come in to the kingdom of truth and justice” (p. 30 from the novel). Since Pilate represents hawaii, he doesn’t agree with Yesua. Because the events in Jerusalem were real, author uses it to take into account a new topic of power in the light of the events in order that events in Bulgakov’s Jershalaim seem to be truthful too…
Works Cited
Pevear, R. (1997). Introduction. In Bulgakov, M. Master and Margarita (pp. 1-11). English translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. London: Penguin Books.
Wright, A. C. (1978). Mikhail Bulgakov: Life and Interpretations (pp. 258-273). Toronto: Academy of Toronto Press.
