All about the heroes Master and Margarita. The Master is the main character of the novel “The Master and Margarita”. Poplavsky Maximilian Andreevich

Synopsis of the paired lesson

literature in 11th grade.

Collegium teacher No. 98 Kotik A.A.

Subject. Who main character novel by M.A. Bulgakov

"Master and Margarita"?

Target. During the analysis according to images create understandingbasic 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.

During the classes

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, 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 still…

(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? Which main idea did 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 that 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”

Since the first edition, the attractiveness of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel has not ceased; representatives of different generations and different worldviews turn to it. There are many reasons for this.

One of them is that in the novel “The Master and Margarita” the heroes and their destinies force us to rethink life values ​​and think about our own responsibility for the good and evil that is happening in the world.

The main characters of "The Master and Margarita"

Bulgakov’s work is a “novel within a novel”, and the main characters of Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” in the part that tells about Satan’s stay in Moscow are Woland, The Master and Margarita, Ivan Bezdomny.

Woland

Satan, the Devil, “the spirit of evil and lord of shadows,” the powerful “prince of darkness.” Visited Moscow in the role of “professor of black magic.” Woland studies people different ways trying to bring out their essence. Having looked at the Muscovites in the variety theater, he concludes that they are “ordinary people, in general, they resemble the old ones, the housing problem has only spoiled them.” Giving his “great ball”, he brings anxiety and confusion into the lives of the townspeople. He disinterestedly takes part in the fate of the Master and Margarita, revives the Master's burned novel, and allows the author of the novel to inform Pilate that he has been forgiven.

Woland takes on his real guise, leaving Moscow.

Master

A former historian who renounced his name, who wrote a brilliant novel about Pontius Pilate. Unable to withstand the persecution of critics, he ends up in a psychiatric hospital. Margarita, the Master's beloved, asks Satan to save her beloved. Woland also fulfills the request of Yeshua, who read the novel, to give the Master peace.

“The farewell is over, the bills are paid,” and the Master and Margarita find peace and an “eternal home.”

Margarita

A beautiful and intelligent woman, the wife of a “very important specialist”, who needed nothing, was not happy. Everything changed the moment I met the Master. Having fallen in love, Margarita becomes his “secret wife,” friend and like-minded person. She inspires the Master to have a romance, encourages him to fight for him.

Having made a deal with Satan, she plays the role of hostess at his ball. The mercy of Margarita, asking to spare Frida instead of asking for herself, Latunsky’s defense, and participation in Pilate’s fate soften Woland.

Through the efforts of Margarita, the Master is saved, both leave the Earth with Woland’s retinue.

Homeless Ivan

A proletarian poet who, on instructions from an editor, wrote an anti-religious poem about Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the novel, “an ignorant” person, narrow-minded, believes that “man himself controls” his life, cannot believe in the existence of the Devil and Jesus. Unable to cope with the emotional stress of meeting Woland, she ends up in a clinic for the mentally ill.
After meeting the Master, he begins to understand that his poems are “monstrous” and promises to never write poetry again. The master calls him his student.

At the end of the novel, Ivan lives by his real name - Ponyrev, he became a professor, works at the Institute of History and Philosophy. He has recovered, but sometimes he still cannot cope with incomprehensible mental anxiety.

The list of characters in the novel is large; everyone who appears on the pages of the work deepens and reveals its meaning. Let us dwell on the most significant characters in Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” for revealing the author’s intention.

Woland's retinue

Fagot-Koroviev

The senior assistant in Woland's retinue, he is entrusted with the most important matters. In communicating with Muscovites, Koroviev introduces himself as the secretary and translator of the foreigner Woland, but it is not clear who he really is: “a magician, a regent, a sorcerer, a translator, or the devil knows who.” He is constantly in action, and no matter what he does, no matter who he communicates with, he grimaces and clowns around, screams and “yells.”

Fagot's mannerisms and speech change dramatically when he speaks to those who deserve respect. He speaks to Woland respectfully, in a clear and sonorous voice, helps Margarita manage the ball, and looks after the Master.

Only at his last appearance on the pages of the novel does Fagot appear in his true image: next to Woland a knight “with a gloomy and never smiling face” rode on a horse. Once punished for many centuries as a jester for a poor pun on the theme of light and darkness, he has now “paid his account and closed it.”

Azazello

Demon, Woland's assistant. The appearance “with a fang protruding from the mouth, disfiguring the already unprecedentedly vile face”, with a cataract on the right eye, is repulsive. His main duties involve the use of force: “punching the administrator in the face, or throwing his uncle out of the house, or shooting someone, or some other trifle like that.” Leaving the earth, Azazello takes on his real appearance - the appearance of a demon killer with empty eyes and a cold face.

Cat Behemoth

According to Woland himself, his assistant is “a fool.” He appears to the residents of the capital in the form of a “huge, like a hog, black, like soot or rook, and with a desperate cavalry mustache” cat or a plump man with a physiognomy similar to a cat’s. Behemoth's jokes are not always harmless, and after his disappearance, ordinary black cats began to be exterminated throughout the country.

Flying away from the Earth in Woland's retinue, Behemoth turns out to be "a thin youth, a demon page, the best jester that has ever existed in the world."
Gella. Woland's maid, vampire witch.

Characters from the novel The Master

Pontius Pilate and Yeshua are the main characters of the story written by the Master.

Pontius Pilate

Procurator of Judea, cruel and domineering ruler.

Realizing that Yeshua, who was brought in for interrogation, is not guilty of anything, he becomes imbued with sympathy for him. But, despite his high position, the procurator could not resist the decision to execute him and became cowardly for fear of losing power.

The hegemon takes Ga-Notsri’s words that “among human vices one of the most important is cowardice”, he takes it personally. Tormented by remorse, he spends “twelve thousand moons” in the mountains. Released by the Master, who wrote a novel about him.

Yeshua Ha-Nozri

A philosopher traveling from city to city. He is lonely, knows nothing about his parents, believes that by nature all people are good, and the time will come when “the temple of the old faith will collapse and a new temple of truth will be created” and no power will be needed. He talks about this with people, but for his words he is accused of an attempt on the power and authority of Caesar and executed. Before execution, he forgives his executioners.

In the final part of Bulgakov’s novel, Yeshua, having read the Master’s novel, asks Woland to reward the Master and Margarita with peace, meets Pilate again, and they walk, talking, along the lunar road.

Levi Matvey

A former tax collector who considers himself a disciple of Yeshua. He writes down everything that Ga-Nozri says, presenting what he heard according to his understanding. He is devoted to his teacher, takes him down from the cross to bury him, and is going to kill Judas of Cariath.

Judah of Kiriath

A handsome young man who, for thirty tetradrachms, provoked Yeshua to speak out about state power in front of secret witnesses. Killed by secret order of Pontius Pilate.
Caiaphas. Jewish high priest who heads the Sanhedrin. He is accused by Pontius Pilate of executing Yeshua Ha-Nozri.

Heroes of the Moscow world

Characteristics of the heroes of the novel “The Master and Margarita” will be incomplete without a description of the characters of literary and artistic Moscow, contemporary to the author.

Aloisy Mogarych. A new acquaintance of the Master, who introduced himself as a journalist. Wrote a denunciation against the Master in order to occupy his apartment.

Baron Meigel. An employee of the entertainment commission, whose duties included introducing foreigners to the sights of the capital. “Earpiece and spy,” according to Woland’s definition.

Bengal Georges. Entertainer of the Variety Theater, known throughout the city. A person is limited and ignorant.

Berlioz. Writer, chairman of the board of MASSOLIT, a large Moscow literary association, editor of a large art magazine. In conversations he “discovered considerable erudition.” Denied the existence of Jesus Christ, and argued that a person cannot be “suddenly mortal.” Not believing Woland's prediction about his unexpected death, he dies after being run over by a tram.

Bosoy Nikanor Ivanovich. The “businesslike and cautious” chairman of the housing association of the building in which the “bad apartment” was located.

Varenukha. “A famous theater administrator known throughout Moscow.”

Likhodeev Stepan. The director of the Variety Theater, who drinks heavily and does not fulfill his duties.

Sempleyarov Arkady Apollonovich. Chairman of the acoustic commission of Moscow theaters, who insists during a black magic session at the Variety Show on exposing the “technique of tricks.”

Sokov Andrey Fokich. A little man, a bartender at the Variety Theater, a swindler, a scrounger, who does not know how to get joy from life, who earns unearned money on sturgeon of the “second freshest”.

A brief description of the characters will be needed in order to more easily understand the events of the summary of the novel “The Master and Margarita” and not get lost in the question of “who is who.”

Work test

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 people die. 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 see, mystical symbolism from the very beginning creative path interested the author. 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.
The Diaboliad is one of Bulgakov’s favorite motifs and was vividly portrayed 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”

Other writings:

1. In the crowded gathering of people inhabiting the novel, the role of this character is clearly defined. The chapter in which the reader meets him is titled “The Appearance of the Hero.” Meanwhile, M. takes up little space in the plot space. He appears in Chapter 13, when Read More......
2. The action of the novel unfolds on three levels at once: historical-legendary (ancient Judea), modern-everyday (Moscow in the 2030s of the 20th century) and mystical-fantastic. Narrating the events taking place in these three worlds, Bulgakov poses in parallel eternal questions about good and evil, true and false morality, honor Read More ......
3. Who rules the world? Do people decide their own destiny or are there higher powers? It is this question that one of the greatest writers of the early 20th century, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, poses in his novel. “The Master and Margarita” combines two storylines, two Read More ......
4. I want to tell you about the wonderful novel by M. A. Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita. There are books that it is not enough to read once or twice. All his life a person seems to be climbing an invisible ladder, rising unevenly, sometimes running, sometimes freezing in place. He Read More......
5. During the life of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, the novel “The Master and Margarita” was not completed and was not published. It is known that on May 8, 1929. Bulgakov submitted the manuscript “Furibunda” to the publishing house “Nedra” under the pseudonym K. Tugai. This is the earliest known date of work Read More......
6. Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov is a famous Russian writer. Any person who remembers Bulgakov’s work will name “The Master and Margarita” first of all. I wonder why? This is because the novel is thoroughly saturated life values and various eternal questions about good and evil, about life and death, Read More......
7. Bulgakov had God-given talent as an artist. And how this talent was expressed was largely determined by the circumstances of the surrounding life and by how the writer’s fate unfolded. In the early 20s he conceived the novel “The Engineer with a Hoof”, Read More ......
8. Bulgakov wrote the novel “The Master and Margarita” for a long time. The unfinished story “Diaboliada” can be considered a distant sketch, where the emphasis is on satirical image contemporary reality for the writer. The first drafts of the novel already include the Devil as one of the central characters, but in them he appears Read More......

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

The Master and Margarita is Bulgakov’s legendary work, a novel that became his ticket to immortality. He thought about, planned and wrote the novel for 12 years, and it went through many changes that are now difficult to imagine, because the book acquired an amazing compositional unity. Alas, Mikhail Afanasyevich never had time to finish his life’s work; no final edits were made. He himself assessed his brainchild as the main message to humanity, as a testament to descendants. What did Bulgakov want to tell us?

The novel opens up to us the world of Moscow in the 30s. The master, together with his beloved Margarita, writes a brilliant novel about Pontius Pilate. It is not allowed to be published, and the author himself is overwhelmed by an impossible mountain of criticism. In a fit of despair, the hero burns his novel and ends up in a psychiatric hospital, leaving Margarita alone. At the same time, Woland, the devil, arrives in Moscow along with his retinue. They cause disturbances in the city, such as black magic sessions, performances at Variety and Griboyedov, etc. The heroine, meanwhile, is looking for a way to return her Master; subsequently makes a deal with Satan, becomes a witch and attends a ball among the dead. Woland is delighted with Margarita's love and devotion and decides to return her beloved. The novel about Pontius Pilate also rises from the ashes. And the reunited couple retires to a world of peace and tranquility.

The text contains chapters from the Master's novel itself, telling about events in the world of Yershalaim. This is a story about the wandering philosopher Ha-Nozri, the interrogation of Yeshua by Pilate, and the subsequent execution of the latter. The insert chapters are of direct importance to the novel, since their understanding is the key to revealing the author's ideas. All parts form a single whole, closely intertwined.

Topics and issues

Bulgakov reflected his thoughts about creativity on the pages of the work. He understood that the artist is not free, he cannot create only at the behest of his soul. Society fetters him and ascribes certain boundaries to him. Literature in the 30s was subject to the strictest censorship, books were often written to order from the authorities, a reflection of which we will see in MASSOLIT. The master was unable to obtain permission to publish his novel about Pontius Pilate and spoke of his stay among the literary society of that time as a living hell. The hero, inspired and talented, could not understand its members, corrupt and absorbed in petty material concerns, and they, in turn, could not understand him. Therefore, the Master found himself outside this bohemian circle with the work of his entire life, which was not permitted for publication.

The second aspect of the problem of creativity in a novel is the author’s responsibility for his work, its fate. The master, disappointed and completely desperate, burns the manuscript. The writer, according to Bulgakov, must achieve the truth through his creativity, it must benefit society and act for the good. The hero, on the contrary, acted cowardly.

The problem of choice is reflected in the chapters devoted to Pilate and Yeshua. Pontius Pilate, understanding the unusualness and value of such a person as Yeshua, sends him to execution. Cowardice is the most terrible vice. The prosecutor was afraid of responsibility, afraid of punishment. This fear completely drowned out his sympathy for the preacher, and the voice of reason speaking about the uniqueness and purity of Yeshua’s intentions, and his conscience. The latter tormented him for the rest of his life, as well as after his death. Only at the end of the novel was Pilate allowed to talk to Him and be freed.

Composition

In his novel, Bulgakov used such a compositional technique as a novel within a novel. The “Moscow” chapters are combined with the “Pilatorian” ones, that is, with the work of the Master himself. The author draws a parallel between them, showing that it is not time that changes a person, but only he himself is capable of changing himself. Constantly working on oneself is a titanic task, which Pilate failed to cope with, for which he was doomed to eternal mental suffering. The motives of both novels are the search for freedom, truth, the struggle between good and evil in the soul. Everyone can make mistakes, but a person must constantly reach for the light; only this can make him truly free.

Main characters: characteristics

1. Yeshua Ha-Nozri (Jesus Christ) is a wandering philosopher who believes that all people are good in themselves and that the time will come when truth will be the main human value, and institutions of power will no longer be necessary. He preached, therefore he was accused of an attempt on the power of Caesar and was put to death. Before his death, the hero forgives his executioners; he dies without betraying his convictions, he dies for people, atonement for their sins, for which he was awarded the Light. Yeshua appears before us as a real person of flesh and blood, capable of feeling both fear and pain; he is not shrouded in an aura of mysticism.
2. Pontius Pilate is the procurator of Judea, a truly historical figure. In the Bible he judged Christ. Using his example, the author reveals the theme of choice and responsibility for one’s actions. Interrogating the prisoner, the hero understands that he is innocent, and even feels personal sympathy for him. He invites the preacher to lie to save his life, but Yeshua is not bowed down and is not going to give up his words. The official's cowardice prevents him from defending the accused; he is afraid of losing power. This does not allow him to act according to his conscience, as his heart tells him. The procurator condemns Yeshua to death, and himself to mental torment, which, of course, is in many ways worse than physical torment. At the end of the novel, the master frees his hero, and he, together with the wandering philosopher, rises along a ray of light.
3. The master is a creator who wrote a novel about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua. This hero embodied the image of an ideal writer who lives by his creativity, not looking for fame, rewards, or money. He won large sums in the lottery and decided to devote himself to creativity - and this is how his only, but certainly brilliant, work was born. At the same time, he met love - Margarita, who became his support and support. Unable to withstand criticism from Moscow's highest literary society, the Master burns the manuscript and is forcibly committed to a psychiatric clinic. Then he was released from there by Margarita with the help of Woland, who was very interested in the novel. After death, the hero deserves peace. It is peace, and not light, like Yeshua, because the writer betrayed his beliefs and renounced his creation.
4. Margarita is the creator’s beloved, ready to do anything for him, even attend Satan’s ball. Before meeting the main character, she was married to a wealthy man, whom, however, she did not love. She found her happiness only with the Master, whom she herself called after reading the first chapters of his future novel. She became his muse, inspiring him to continue creating. The heroine is associated with the theme of fidelity and devotion. The woman is faithful to both her Master and his work: she brutally deals with the critic Latunsky, who slandered them; thanks to her, the author himself returns from a psychiatric clinic and his seemingly irretrievably lost novel about Pilate. For her love and willingness to follow her chosen one to the end, Margarita was awarded by Woland. Satan gave her peace and unity with the Master, what the heroine most desired.

Woland's image

In many ways, this hero is similar to Goethe's Mephistopheles. His very name is taken from his poem, the scene of Walpurgis Night, where the devil was once called by that name. The image of Woland in the novel “The Master and Margarita” is very ambiguous: he is the embodiment of evil, and at the same time a defender of justice and a preacher of true moral values. Against the background of cruelty, greed and depravity of ordinary Muscovites, the hero looks rather like a positive character. He, seeing this historical paradox (he has something to compare with), concludes that people are like people, the most ordinary, the same, only the housing issue has spoiled them.

The devil's punishment comes only to those who deserve it. Thus, his retribution is very selective and based on the principle of justice. Bribe takers, incompetent scribblers who care only about their material wealth, catering workers who steal and sell expired food, insensitive relatives fighting for an inheritance after the death of a loved one - these are those whom Woland punishes. He does not push them to sin, he only exposes the vices of society. So the author, using satirical and phantasmagoric techniques, describes the customs and morals of Muscovites of the 30s.

The master is a truly talented writer who was not given the opportunity to realize himself; the novel was simply “strangled” by Massolitov officials. He was not like his fellow writers with a credential; lived through his creativity, giving it all of himself, and sincerely worrying about the fate of his work. The master retained a pure heart and soul, for which he was awarded by Woland. The destroyed manuscript was restored and returned to its author. For her boundless love, Margarita was forgiven for her weaknesses by the devil, to whom Satan even granted the right to ask him for the fulfillment of one of her desires.

Bulgakov expressed his attitude towards Woland in the epigraph: “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good” (“Faust” by Goethe). Indeed, having unlimited capabilities, the hero punishes human vices, but this can be considered an instruction on the true path. He is a mirror in which everyone can see their sins and change. His most devilish feature is the corrosive irony with which he treats everything earthly. Using his example, we are convinced that maintaining one’s convictions along with self-control and not going crazy is possible only with the help of humor. We cannot take life too seriously, because what seems to us an unshakable stronghold so easily crumbles at the slightest criticism. Woland is indifferent to everything, and this separates him from people.

good and evil

Good and evil are inseparable; When people stop doing good, evil immediately appears in its place. It is the absence of light, the shadow that replaces it. In Bulgakov's novel, two opposing forces are embodied in the images of Woland and Yeshua. The author, in order to show that the participation of these abstract categories in life is always relevant and occupies important positions, places Yeshua in an era as distant as possible from us, on the pages of the Master’s novel, and Woland in modern times. Yeshua preaches, tells people about his ideas and understanding of the world, its creation. Later, for openly expressing his thoughts, he will be tried by the procurator of Judea. His death is not the triumph of evil over good, but rather a betrayal of good, because Pilate was unable to do the right thing, which means he opened the door to evil. Ha-Notsri dies unbroken and undefeated, his soul retains the light in itself, opposed to the darkness of the cowardly act of Pontius Pilate.

The devil, called to do evil, arrives in Moscow and sees that people's hearts are filled with darkness even without him. All he can do is denounce and mock them; Due to his dark essence, Woland cannot create justice otherwise. But it is not he who pushes people to sin, it is not he who makes the evil in them overcome the good. According to Bulgakov, the devil is not absolute darkness, he commits acts of justice, which is very difficult to consider a bad act. This is one of the main ideas of Bulgakov, embodied in “The Master and Margarita” - nothing except the person himself can force him to act one way or another, the choice of good or evil lies with him.

You can also talk about the relativity of good and evil. AND good people act wrongly, cowardly, selfishly. So the Master gives up and burns his novel, and Margarita takes cruel revenge on the critic Latunsky. However, kindness does not lie in not making mistakes, but in constantly striving for the bright and correcting them. Therefore, forgiveness and peace await the loving couple.

The meaning of the novel

There are many interpretations of the meaning of this work. Of course, it is impossible to say definitively. At the center of the novel is the eternal struggle between good and evil. In the author’s understanding, these two components are on equal terms both in nature and in human hearts. This explains the appearance of Woland, as the concentration of evil by definition, and Yeshua, who believed in natural human kindness. Light and darkness are closely intertwined, constantly interacting with each other, and it is no longer possible to draw clear boundaries. Woland punishes people according to the laws of justice, but Yeshua forgives them in spite of them. This is the balance.

The struggle takes place not only directly for human souls. A person’s need to reach out to the light runs like a red thread throughout the entire narrative. True freedom can only be achieved through this. It is very important to understand that the author always punishes heroes shackled by everyday petty passions, either like Pilate - with eternal torment of conscience, or like Moscow inhabitants - through the tricks of the devil. He extols others; Gives Margarita and the Master peace; Yeshua deserves the Light for his devotion and faithfulness to his beliefs and words.

This novel is also about love. Margarita appears as an ideal woman who is able to love until the very end, despite all the obstacles and difficulties. The master and his beloved are collective images of a man devoted to his work and a woman faithful to her feelings.

Theme of creativity

The master lives in the capital of the 30s. During this period, socialism is being built, new orders are being established, and moral and ethical standards are being sharply reset. New literature is also born here, with which on the pages of the novel we become acquainted through Berlioz, Ivan Bezdomny, and members of Massolit. The path of the main character is complex and thorny, like Bulgakov himself, but he retains a pure heart, kindness, honesty, the ability to love and writes a novel about Pontius Pilate, containing all those important problems that every person of the current or future generation must solve for himself . It is based on the moral law hidden within each individual; and only he, and not the fear of God's retribution, is able to determine the actions of people. Spiritual world The master is subtle and beautiful, because he is a true artist.

However, true creativity is persecuted and often becomes recognized only after the death of the author. The repressions affecting independent artists in the USSR are striking in their cruelty: from ideological persecution to the actual recognition of a person as crazy. This is how many of Bulgakov’s friends were silenced, and he himself had a hard time. Freedom of speech resulted in imprisonment, or even death, as in Judea. This parallel with the Ancient World emphasizes the backwardness and primitive savagery of the “new” society. The well-forgotten old became the basis of policy regarding art.

Two worlds of Bulgakov

The worlds of Yeshua and the Master are more closely connected than it seems at first glance. Both layers of the narrative touch on the same issues: freedom and responsibility, conscience and fidelity to one’s beliefs, understanding of good and evil. It’s not for nothing that there are so many heroes of doubles, parallels and antitheses here.

The Master and Margarita violates the urgent canon of the novel. This story is not about the fate of individuals or their groups, it is about all of humanity, its fate. Therefore, the author connects two eras that are as distant as possible from each other. People in the times of Yeshua and Pilate are not very different from the people of Moscow, the Master’s contemporaries. They are also concerned about personal problems, power and money. Master in Moscow, Yeshua in Judea. Both bring the truth to the masses, and both suffer for it; the first is persecuted by critics, crushed by society and doomed to end his life in a psychiatric hospital, the second is subjected to a more terrible punishment - a demonstrative execution.

The chapters dedicated to Pilate differ sharply from the Moscow chapters. The style of the inserted text is distinguished by its evenness and monotony, and only in the chapter of execution does it turn into a sublime tragedy. The description of Moscow is full of grotesque, phantasmagoric scenes, satire and ridicule of its inhabitants, lyrical moments dedicated to the Master and Margarita, which, of course, determines the presence of various storytelling styles. The vocabulary also varies: it can be low and primitive, filled even with swearing and jargon, or it can be sublime and poetic, filled with colorful metaphors.

Although both narratives are significantly different from each other, when reading the novel there is a feeling of integrity, so strong is the thread connecting the past with the present in Bulgakov.

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

A difficult period appears tragically and mercilessly in the novel. Russian history, turning around in such a homely way that the devil himself visits the palaces of the capital 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 highlight specific themes, but after almost a decade and as a result of difficult work, Bulgakov came to a complexly structured, fantastic, but therefore no less a life story.

Along with this, being a man who overcomes difficulties hand in hand with the woman he loves, the writer managed to find a place for the nature of feelings more subtle than vanity. Fireflies of hope leading the main characters through devilish trials. So the novel was given its final title in 1937: “The Master and Margarita.” And this was the third edition.

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

The author's attempts to bring the novel to its logical conclusion indicate how important it was for him. Bulgakov, with the last of his strength, burned out on 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 with whom they are talking on a May day on the patriarchal ponds. Subsequently, Berlioz dies according to Woland’s prophecy, and Messire himself occupies his apartment to continue his pranks and hoaxes.

Homeless Ivan, in turn, becomes a patient in a psychiatric hospital, unable to cope with the impressions of meeting 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 treats undesirable writers cruelly 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 leads 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 lover. One of the members of Woland's retinue, the demon of the waterless desert Azazello, delivers a miraculous cream to Margarita, thanks to which the heroine turns into a witch in order to play the role of queen at Satan's ball. Having overcome some torments 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, the storyline about Pilate, a novel written by the Master, develops. The story tells of the arrested wandering philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, who was betrayed by Judas of Kiriath and handed over to the authorities. The procurator of Judea holds court within the walls of the palace of Herod the Great and is forced to execute a man whose ideas, disdainful of the authority of Caesar, and of authority in general, seem to him interesting and worthy of discussion, if not fair. Having dealt with his duty, Pilate orders Afranius, 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 Matvey, visits Woland with a petition to grant peace to the lovers. 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 that appear in the first chapters.

The character of Woland is somewhat different from the canonical embodiment of evil in its pure form, although in the first edition he was assigned the role of a tempter. In the process of processing material on satanic themes, Bulgakov created the image of a player with unlimited power to shape destinies, 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 as a stage for Woland, on which, by the way, he does not leave any fatal destruction. Woland is called upon by Bulgakov as a higher power, a measure of human actions. He is a mirror reflecting the essence of the other characters and society, mired in denunciations, deceit, greed and hypocrisy. And, like any mirror, messir gives the opportunity to people who think and are inclined towards justice to change for the better.

An image with an elusive portrait. Outwardly, the features of Faust, Gogol and Bulgakov himself are intertwined in him, since heartache, caused by harsh criticism and lack of recognition, caused the writer many 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 as a stranger through the prism of a deceptive appearance.

The master remembers little about life before meeting his love, Margarita, as if he never really lived. The hero’s biography bears a clear imprint of the events in the life of Mikhail Afanasyevich. Only the writer came up with a brighter ending for the hero than he experienced himself.

A collective image that embodies female courage to love despite the circumstances. Margarita is attractive, daring and desperate in her desire to reunite with the Master. Without her, nothing would have happened, because with her prayers, so to speak, a meeting with Satan took place, a great ball took place with her determination, and only thanks to her unshakable dignity a meeting between the two main tragic heroes took place.
If we look back at Bulgakov’s life, it is easy to note that without Elena Sergeevna, the writer’s third wife, who worked on his manuscript for twenty years and followed him during his life, like a faithful but expressive shadow, ready to drive away enemies and ill-wishers from the world, it would not have happened either publication of the novel.

Woland's retinue

(Woland and his retinue)

The retinue includes Azazello, Koroviev-Fagot, Behemoth the Cat and Gella. The latter is a female vampire and occupies the lowest level in the demonic hierarchy, a minor character.
The first is the prototype of the desert demon; he plays the role of Woland’s right hand. So Azazello mercilessly kills Baron Meigel. In addition to his ability to kill, Azazello skillfully seduces Margarita. In a 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 call 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 respectable public. The character helps the author provide the novel with a satirical component, ridiculing the vices of society, crawling into cracks where the seducer Azazello cannot reach. Moreover, in the finale he turns out to be not a joker at all in essence, but a knight punished for an unsuccessful pun.

The cat Behemoth is the best of the jesters, a werewolf, a demon prone to gluttony, who every now and then brings chaos into the lives of Muscovites with his comical adventures. The prototypes were definitely cats, both mythological and very real. For example, Flyushka, who lived in the Bulgakovs’ house. The writer’s love for the animal, on whose behalf 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 purchasing 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 exposed. He was able to express his experience through the phrases of the characters, which became household names. 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, while 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 within a novel allows the author to pursue two large storylines, gradually bringing them closer together in the timeline until they intersect “beyond the border,” where fiction and reality are no longer distinguishable. Which, in turn, raises the philosophical question about the significance of a person’s thoughts, against the backdrop 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 pass through time, like the heroes themselves, in order to again and again touch upon important aspects of human social life, religion, issues of moral and ethical choice and the eternal struggle between good and evil.