Work:
The Master and Margarita
In this hero, Bulgakov created a very unique image of Satan. This is not absolute evil. V. came to Moscow to judge. And it is important to note that not a single innocent person was harmed. At the very beginning of the novel, when V. appears on the Patriarch's Ponds, he is holding a cane with a poodle's head on the handle. The black poodle is the sign of Satan.
V.'s appearance is very remarkable. He has different eyes: “The right one with a golden spark at the bottom, drilling anyone to the bottom of the soul, and the left one is empty and black, kind of like a narrow eye of a needle...”. V.’s face is somewhat slanted to the side, “the right corner of the mouth is pulled down,” his skin is very dark.
V. is wise, his philosophy is extremely interesting. We can say that he does not do evil, he does justice, but in his own, devilish ways. But he also does good deeds. For example, it is V. who helps Margarita find the Master again in gratitude for the fact that she was the queen at his ball. He frees these heroes from the burden of life in this reality and rewards them with peace. These people do not deserve the light, so Yeshua cannot take them to himself. And Satan can also give you peace. V. says that darkness and light are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other. These concepts are interrelated. Bulgakov conveyed the image of a very wise and charming Devil. He should not be feared by those who have a completely clear conscience.
Woland is a character in the novel “The Master and Margarita”, who leads the world of otherworldly forces. Woland is the devil, Satan, “prince of darkness,” “spirit of evil and lord of shadows” (all these definitions are found in the text of the novel). Woland is largely inspired by Mephistopheles in Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust. The name Woland itself is taken from Goethe’s poem, where it is mentioned only once and is usually omitted in Russian translations. As amended 1929 – 1930 the name Woland was reproduced in full Latin on his business card: “Dr Theodor Voland”. In the final text, Bulgakov abandoned the Latin alphabet. Let us note that in early editions Bulgakov tried the names Azazello and Veliar for the future Woland.
Woland’s portrait is shown before the start of the Great Ball: “Two eyes fixed on Margarita’s face. The right one with a golden spark at the bottom, drilling anyone to the bottom of the soul, and the left one is empty and black, kind of like a narrow eye of a needle, like an exit into a bottomless well of all darkness and shadows. Woland's face was slanted to the side, the right corner of his mouth was pulled down, and deep wrinkles were cut into his high, bald forehead, parallel to his sharp eyebrows. The skin on Woland’s face seemed to be forever burned by a tan.”
Bulgakov hides Woland’s true face only at the very beginning of the novel in order to intrigue the reader, and then directly declares through the mouth of the Master and Woland himself that the devil has definitely arrived at the Patriarch’s. The image of Woland in relation to the view of the devil, which was defended in the book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth” by the philosopher and theologian P.A. Florensky: “Sin is fruitless, because it is not life, but death. And death drags out its ghostly existence only life and about Life, feeds from Life and exists only insofar as Life gives it nourishment from itself. What death has is only the life it has spoiled. Even at the “black mass”, in the very nest of the devil, the Devil and his fans could not come up with anything other than to blasphemously parody the mysteries of the liturgy, doing everything the other way around. What emptiness! What beggary! What flat “depths”!”
WOLAND - central character M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” (1928-1940), the devil, who appeared at the “hour of hot spring sunset on the Patriarch’s Ponds” to celebrate “the great ball of Satan” here in Moscow; which, as it should be, became the cause of many extraordinary events that caused turmoil in the peaceful life of the city and caused a lot of anxiety to its inhabitants.
In the process of creating the novel, the image of V. played a key role. This character was the starting point artistic design, which then underwent many changes. The future novel about the Master and Margarita began as a “novel about the devil” (Bulgakov’s words from his letter to the “Government of the USSR”, 1930). In the early editions, V., who had not yet found his name, called either Herr Faland or Azazel, was the main person placed at the center of the narrative. This is indicated by almost all variants of the title of the novel, noted in manuscripts from 1928 to 1937: “Black Magician”, “Engineer’s Hoof”, “Consultant with a Hoof”, “Satan”, “Black Theologian”, “Great Chancellor”, “Prince of Darkness”, etc. As the “distance” expanded free romance“(the “antique” line developed, the Master and Margarita appeared, as well as many other people), V. lost his function as a hero. In the “final” edition, he was pushed out of the main roles and became the tritagonist of the plot, after the Master and Margarita, after Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate. Having lost his supremacy in the hierarchy of images, V. nevertheless retained obvious primacy in terms of plot presence. He appears in fifteen chapters of the novel, while the Master appears in only five, and Yeshua in only two chapters.
The author took the name V. from Goethe’s Faust: Mephistopheles’ exclamation “Plate! Junker Voland kommt" (“The road! - the devil is coming!”; translation by N.A. Kholodkovsky; scene “Walpurgis Night”). The source of the image for Bulgakov was M.N. Orlov’s book “The History of Relations between Man and the Devil” (1904), as well as articles about Satan and demonology “ Encyclopedic Dictionary"Brockhaus and Efron. In the depiction of the devil, the writer used some traditional attributes, emblems, portrait descriptions: lameness, squint, crooked mouth, black eyebrows - one higher than the other, a cane with a knob in the shape of a poodle's head, a beret, famously twisted over the ear, although without a feather, and so on. Nevertheless, Bulgakovsky V. differs significantly from the images of Satan captured artistic tradition. Research shows that these differences intensified from one edition to another. “Early” V. was much closer to the traditional type of tempter, catcher human souls. He committed sacrilege and demanded blasphemous acts from others. In the “final” version, these points disappeared. Bulgakov interprets the provocation of the devil in a unique way. Traditionally, Satan is called upon to provoke everything dark lurking in a person’s soul, to kindle it, as it were. The meaning of V.'s provocations is the study of people as they really are. A session of black magic in a variety theater (a classic provocation) revealed both the bad (greed) and the good in the audience gathered there, showing that mercy sometimes knocks on people's hearts. The last conclusion, deadly for Satan, does not offend V. Bulgakov at all.
Messire V., as his retinue respectfully calls him, consisting of the lomaki-regent Koroviev, Fagot, the demon Azazello, the cat Behemoth and the witch Gella, is by no means a fighter against God and not an enemy of the human race. Contrary to the orthodox interpretation, which denies the devil the truth, for “he is a lie and the father of lies” (John, VII, 44), V. is involved in the truth. He certainly distinguishes between good and evil: usually Satan is a relativist for whom these concepts are relative. Moreover, V. is endowed with the power to punish people for the evil they have committed; He himself does not slander anyone, but he punishes slanderers and informers.
Throughout the novel, V. does not try to capture souls. He doesn’t need the souls of the Master and Margarita, to whom he showed so much selfless concern. Strictly speaking, V. is not the devil (Greek §1phoHo^ means “scattering”), understood as an evil will that separates people. V. decisively intervenes in the fate of the Master and Margarita, separated by the will of circumstances, unites them and finds them “eternal shelter.” Bulgakov outlined such a clear crime of the devil’s powers in the epigraph of the novel, taken from Goethe’s Faust: “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good.”
The philosophical and religious source of the image of V. was the dualistic teaching of the Manicheans (III-XI centuries), according to which God and the devil act in the world, in the words of the novel, each according to his own department. God commands the heavenly spheres, the devil rules on earth, administering fair judgment. This is indicated, in particular, by V.’s scene with a globe, on which he sees everything that is happening in the world. Traces of the Manichaean doctrine are clearly found in V.’s dialogue with Matthew Levi on the roof of Pashkov’s house. In the early edition, the decision on the fate of the Master and Margarita came to V. in the form of an order, which was brought by an “unknown messenger” who appeared under the rustle of flying wings. IN final version Levi Matthew conveys a request to reward the Master and his beloved with peace. The two worlds, light and shadow, thus became equal.
Woland did not come to earth alone. He was accompanied by creatures who, by and large, play the role of jesters in the novel, putting on all sorts of shows, disgusting and hateful to the indignant Moscow population (they simply turned human vices and weaknesses inside out). But their task was also to do all the “dirty” work for Woland, to serve him, incl. prepare Margarita for the Great Ball and for her and the Master’s journey to a world of peace. Woland's retinue consisted of three "main" jesters - Behemoth the Cat, Koroviev-Fagot, Azazello and the vampire girl Gella. Where did such strange creatures in Woland's retinue? And where did Bulgakov get their images and names from?
Let's start with Behemoth. This is a werecat and Woland's favorite jester. The name Behemoth is taken from the apocryphal Old Testament book of Enoch. Bulgakov apparently gleaned information about Behemoth from the research of I.Ya. Porfiryev “Apocryphal tales about Old Testament persons and events” and from the book by M.A. Orlov "The history of relations between man and the devil." In these works, Behemoth is a sea monster, as well as a demon, which “was depicted as a monster with an elephant head, a trunk and fangs. His hands were human-shaped, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs, like those of a hippopotamus, reminded him of his name.” In Bulgakov, Behemoth became a huge werecat, and the real prototype of Behemoth was the domestic cat L.E. and M.A. Bulgakov Flyushka is a huge gray animal. In the novel he is black, because... represents evil spirits.
During the last flight, Behemoth turns into a thin young page boy flying next to the purple knight (transformed Koroviev-Fagot). This probably reflected the comic “legend of a cruel knight” from the story of Bulgakov’s friend S.S. Zayaitsky "Biography of Stepan Aleksandrovich Lososinov." In this legend, along with the cruel knight, his page also appears. Zayaitsky’s knight had a passion for tearing off the heads of animals, and this function in “The Master...” is transferred to Behemoth, only in relation to people - he tears off the head of Georges Bengalsky.
In the demonological tradition, Behemoth is the demon of the desires of the stomach. Hence the extraordinary gluttony of Behemoth in Torgsin. This is how Bulgakov sneers at the visitors of the currency store, including himself (it’s as if people were possessed by the demon Behemoth, and they are in a hurry to buy delicacies, while outside the capitals the population lives from hand to mouth).
The hippopotamus in the novel mostly jokes and fools around, which reveals Bulgakov’s truly sparkling humor, and also causes confusion and fear in many people with his unusual appearance(at the end of the novel it is he who burns down apartment No. 50, “Griboyedov” and Torgsin).
Koroviev-Fagot is the eldest of the demons subordinate to Woland, his first assistant, a devil and a knight, who introduces himself to Muscovites as a translator for a foreign professor and a former regent church choir. There are many versions about the origin of the Koroviev surname and the nickname Fagot. Perhaps the surname is modeled after the surname of the character in the story by A.K. Tolstoy's "Ghoul" of the state councilor Telyaev, who turns out to be the knight Ambrose and a vampire. Koroviev is also associated with the images of the works of F.M. Dostoevsky. In the epilogue of The Master and Margarita, among the detainees, “four Korovkins” are named due to the similarity of their surnames with Koroviev-Fagot. Here I immediately remember Dostoevsky’s story “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants,” where a certain Korovkin appears. And a number of knights from the works of authors of different times are considered prototypes of Koroviev-Fagot. It is possible that this character also had a real prototype among Bulgakov’s acquaintances - the plumber Ageich, a rare dirty tricker and drunkard, who more than once recalled that in his youth he was the regent of a church choir. And this influenced the hypostasis of Koroviev, posing as a former regent and appearing to the Patriarchs as a bitter drunkard.
The nickname Fagot, of course, echoes the name musical instrument. This, most likely, explains his joke with the employees of the branch of the Entertainment Commission, who, against their will, sang in a choir directed by Koroviev, “The Glorious Sea, Sacred Baikal.” The bassoon (musical instrument) was invented by the Italian monk Afranio. Thanks to this circumstance, the functional connection between Koroviev-Fagot and Afranius is more clearly defined (in the novel, as we have already said, three worlds are distinguished, and representatives of each of them together form triads based on external and functional similarity). Koroviev belongs to the triad: Fyodor Vasilyevich (first assistant to Professor Stravinsky) - Afranius (first assistant to Pontius Pilate) - Koroviev-Fagot (first assistant to Woland). Koroviev-Faot even has some similarities with Fagot - a long thin tube folded in three. Bulgakov's character is thin, tall, and in imaginary servility, it seems, ready to fold himself three times over in front of his interlocutor (in order to then calmly play a dirty trick on him).
In the last flight, Koroviev-Fagot appears before us as a dark purple knight with a gloomy, never smiling face. He rested his chin on his chest, he did not look at the moon, he was not interested in the earth beneath him, he was thinking about something of his own, flying next to Woland.
Why did he change so much? – Margarita asked quietly as the wind whistled from Woland.
“This knight once made a bad joke,” Woland answered, turning his face to Margarita, with a quietly burning eye, “his pun, which he made when talking about light and darkness, was not entirely good.” And the knight had to joke a little more and longer than he expected...
Tattered, tasteless circus clothes, a gay look, buffoonish manners - this turns out to be the punishment meted out to the nameless knight for making a pun about light and darkness!
Azazello – “demon of the waterless desert, demon killer.” The name Azazello was formed by Bulgakov from the Old Testament name Azazel (or Azazel). That's the name of the negative one cultural hero Old Testament apocrypha - the book of Enoch, fallen angel, who taught people to make weapons and jewelry. Thanks to Azazel, women mastered the “lascivious art” of painting their faces. Therefore, it is Azazello who gives Margarita a cream that magically changes her appearance. Bulgakov was probably attracted by the combination of seduction and murder in one character. It is precisely for the insidious seducer that Margarita mistakes Azazello during their first meeting in the Alexander Garden. But Azazello's main function is related to violence. Here are the words that he said to Margarita: “Punching the administrator in the face, or kicking my uncle out of the house, or shooting someone, or some other trifle like that, this is my direct specialty...” Explaining these words, I will say that Azazello threw Stepan Bogdanovich Likhodeev out of Moscow to Yalta, kicked him out of
A bad apartment for Uncle M.A. Berlioz Poplavsky, killed Baron Meigel with a revolver.
Gella is the youngest member of Woland’s retinue, a female vampire. Bulgakov took the name “Gella” from the article “Sorcery” of the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, where it was noted that in Lesvos this name was used to call untimely dead girls who became vampires after death. Characteristics Bulgakov may have borrowed the behavior of vampires - clicking teeth and smacking their lips from A. K. Tolstoy's story "The Ghoul", where the main character is threatened with death by ghouls (vampires). Here, a vampire girl turns her lover into a vampire with a kiss - hence, obviously, Gella’s fatal kiss for Varenukha. She, the only one from Woland's retinue, is absent in the scene of the last flight. The third wife of the writer E.S. Bulgakova believed that this was the result of unfinished work on “The Master and Margarita.” However, it is possible that Bulgakov deliberately removed Gella from the scene of the last flight as the youngest member of the retinue, performing only auxiliary functions both at the Variety Theater, and in the Bad Apartment, and at Satan’s great ball.
Vampires are traditionally the lowest category evil spirits. In addition, Gella would have no one to turn into on the last flight; after all, like Varenukha, having turned into a vampire, she retained her original appearance. It is also possible that Gella’s absence means immediate disappearance (as unnecessary) after the end of the mission of Woland and his companions in Moscow.
Woland is one of the virtuoso incarnations philosophical idea author of The Master and Margarita. His image has a special place in the novel, one might even say a key one. It is Woland who is the only participant both stories, he ultimately brings justice to the main characters.
The author introduces us to Woland from the very first chapter. His appearance, as well as his name, is nothing more than one of the manifestations of the prince of darkness, one of his many masks. In fact, in all planes Woland is present incognito, without revealing his true face: in the first - as a witness, in the second - as a judge.
“... the person described did not limp on any of his legs, and he was neither small nor huge, but simply tall. As for his teeth, he had platinum crowns on the left side and gold ones on the right. He was wearing an expensive gray suit and foreign-made shoes that matched the color of the suit. He cocked his gray beret jauntily over his ear and carried a cane with a black knob in the shape of a poodle's head under his arm. He looks to be over forty years old. The mouth is kind of crooked. Shaven clean. Brunette. The right eye is black, the left one is green for some reason. The eyebrows are black, but one is higher than the other.”
This is exactly how Woland appears to the reader at the very beginning of the novel. His appearance is eloquent and in itself is imbued with a certain mysticism.
Subsequently, lameness repeatedly appears, but Woland himself delicately avoids this topic, only mentioning a certain witch who left him this illness as a souvenir. But Woland's lameness, as well as other flaws in his appearance, such as crowns, a curved mouth and different eyes, are rather a manifestation of the absence of the divine. After all, angels cannot have defects, but the devil was crippled during his overthrow from Paradise and since then his lameness has become physical evidence of his depravity.
The image of Bulgakov's prince of darkness cannot be called canonical, because it is very difficult to call him the personification of evil. In fact, his every act is an act of justice, albeit committed in a special manner, most often completely inhumane. It is also noteworthy that Woland most often does not punish with his own hands; on his orders, this is done by members of his retinue. Funny and absurd - they are a prism through which the vices of the society described by the author are clearly visible: greed, lack of spirituality, betrayal, hypocrisy, bribery, groveling. And all of them, one way or another, were punished - often in a grotesque and cruel manner.
But Woland is also capable of condescension towards human weaknesses:
“They are people like people. They love money, but this has always been the case... Well, they are frivolous... well, well... and mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts... ordinary people... in general, they resemble the previous ones ... the housing issue only spoiled them ... "
At the end of the novel, we understand that as a judge, Woland can not only punish, but also reward. So Margarita, after passing the tests, is reunited with the Master and together they find peace. Also, thanks to Margarita’s request, Frida is granted forgiveness. And the poet Bezdomny, having rethought his views, receives a completely different fate.
Ultimately, it can be said about Woland that if he is evil, then he is necessary. Like a shadow, without which the light would not be visible.
M. Bulgakov’s epigraph to the entire novel “The Master and Margarita” from Goethe’s “Faust” clearly characterizes the character of Woland: “... so who are you, finally? “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good.”
Woland is one of central figures novel by Bulgakov. Represents the forces of evil and darkness, appearing with his retinue in Moscow in the 30s of the last century to hold Satan's Ball.
Woland first appears on the pages of the novel in the episode of his meeting with Berlioz and Bezdomny: “... he was... simply tall. As for his teeth, he had platinum crowns on the left side and gold ones on the right. He was wearing an expensive gray suit and foreign-made shoes that matched the color of the suit. He cocked his gray beret jauntily over his ear and carried a cane with a black knob in the shape of a poodle's head under his arm. He looks to be over forty years old. The mouth is kind of crooked. Shaven clean. Brunette. The right eye is black, the left one is green for some reason. The eyebrows are black, but one is higher than the other. In a word, a foreigner.”... In a dialogue with them, he predicts their destinies, showing how unexpected his future can be for a person: “Yes, a person is mortal, but that would not be so bad. The bad thing is that he is sometimes suddenly mortal, that's the trick! And he can’t say at all what he will do this evening. ... someone who until recently believed that he was in control of something suddenly finds himself lying motionless in a wooden box, and those around him, realizing that the person lying there is no longer of any use, burn him in the oven ... "
The image of Woland as a representative of the forces of darkness is not entirely common. He does not create evil as such; rather, he restores violated justice with his own, not entirely humane, but very effective methods. He exposes, exposes and punishes informers, sensualists, bribe-takers, vile and selfish people, helping honest and decent heroes. Woland is that necessary evil, without which there is no good: “... what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if the shadows disappeared from it?”
At the same time, Woland can be somewhat condescending towards human weaknesses: “They are people like people. They love money, but that's always been the case. Humanity loves money, no matter what it is made of, whether leather, paper, bronze or gold. Well, they are frivolous... well, well... and mercy sometimes knocks on their hearts... ordinary people... in general, they resemble the old ones... the housing problem has only spoiled them...”
With the help of the image of Woland and his retinue, Bulgakov, through sharp satire, exposes the ignorance and lack of spirituality of society, and at the same time raises it to the proper level true values– Margarita’s love and nobility, the Master’s talent. These antiheroes, sometimes bringing the situation to the point of absurdity, show reverse side The outwardly decent life of ordinary people makes them look at familiar events with different eyes.
