Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Year: 2002 (1967)
Publisher: Norstedts Förlag
Language: Swedish (Translator Lars Erik Blomqvist)
It is all
there. Just like they said it would be. Talking cats, bulletproof creatures, severed heads, invisible men, shape-shifters,
con-men, crooks, poets, opportunists, and naked women mounted on porcine
hominids flying like gawky birds through the night thanks to a magical ointment. Insanity
is just one thoughtless decision away (indeed, Dr Stravinsky’s mental
institution fills up at an alarming pace) and a complete collapse of reality is
looming while a destitute writer laments the loss of his magnum opus and the
love of his life. In short; an ostensibly incongruent concoction of madness,
fury, and naïveté.
And it all
began when the devil stopped by to visit Moscow.
Mikhail
Bulgakov’s classic novel “Mästaren och Margarita (“The Master and Margarita”) defies
all description. Nominally, I suppose, it rests on three pillars. The first is
the tumultuous clash between the devil (under the persona of professor Woland)
and his henchmen with the citizens of Moscow. The second is the self-proclaimed
Master’s account of the meeting between Pontius Pilate and Jesus of Nazareth in
Jerusalem some one thousand nine hundred years earlier. The third is
Margarita’s pact with the devil to rescue the Master and return him to her yearning
arms.
It is not
entirely apparent why Woland chose to humiliate Moscow with his presence.
Whatever hints there are, Bulgakov provides them toward the latter half of the
novel. The devil’s first meeting with Moscow takes place by the Patriarshiye
Prudy in an affluent part of the city where he intercepts the conversation
between Berlioz the influential publisher and Bezdomny the poet and predicts the former's death.
While Berlioz and Bezdomny vehemently maintain that neither God nor Satan exists,
Woland argues the opposite and virtually ‘en passant’ mentions that he himself was
there on the balcony where Pilate interrogated Jesus. Shortly thereafter, his
prophecy comes true.
Still, the devil and his cohort do not loiter for long after Berlioz’s messy death before
they establish their base at the now deceased publisher’s flat in Bolshoya
Sadovaya 302-bis (Berlioz’s flatmate is unceremoniously dispatched to Yalta by
magical means) and begin to terrorise the local population. They show no
consideration whatsoever for their hosts and moreover use their weaknesses, most
frequently greed, against them to divert their sometimes importunate attention,
which the gang has made no effort to avoid in the first place.
Pontius Pilate's and Jesus' meeting resurfaces in the second half of the book
where the Master and Margarita are properly introduced. It turns out that the
Master (who remains nameless throughout the book) a long time ago wrote a novel
about this very meeting. To his dismay, his work was rejected by the publishers
and in a temper tantrum preceding his descent into madness, he fed the
manuscript to the flames. He is now one of the patients at the asylum and seems
to have surrendered to his fate.
Finally, in
the last section, the attention is directed to Margarita. Although the Master
has given up all hope rotting away in the asylum, Margarita is not as easily
dissuaded and keeps looking for ways to reconnect with her lover. When the
devil offers her his assistance in exchange for a small favour, she does not
hesitate to accept, repeating over and over again how she is not afraid of Satan.
The favour consists of acting as Woland’s co-host during a ball for dead
sinners where Margarita is faced with lost souls of all types and from all
ages. Her association with Woland develops into something that starts to
resemble friendship.
Analysing
this piece is without a doubt far beyond my capacity. It is a hodgepodge of every
type of madness imaginable. Like Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy” but without the puns. Still, there is no doubt that the book is teeming
with symbolism and covert messages. Much like Sigmund Freud argued that our
dreams are twisted and turned so as to protect us from the grim reality that
they are designed to help us process, so do I imagine that Bulgakov went out of
his way to distort the society he wanted to criticise in order to protect
himself. From the authorities for sure, but perhaps also from insanity.
There
should be no doubt that The Master and Margarita is an attack on the Soviet
society and system. Bulgakov was in his 20s when the Russian revolution put an
end to the czar’s rule and the Bolsheviks introduced a new type of tyranny. He
had chosen to side with the old regime and later suffered oppression and censorship
from the authorities. The angst and resentment felt by the Master-character and
later his resignation and acceptance of his fate constitute an emotional cycle
that must have been profoundly familiar to Bulgakov. The nervous publishers,
the housing policies, the reporting culture, and the mental asylum must all
have been inspired by Bulgakov’s own observations of the new Moscow under
Stalin.
SPOILER ALERT
Still,
Bulgakov doesn’t lose hope. Although the Devil brings perfect pandemonium to
the narrow-minded souls in idle pursuit of the petty ambitions that preoccupy
the average brains of the common man, Margarita’s pure and selfless aspirations
pave the way to deliverance for both her and her lover. In one of the final
chapters, Woland is looking out over Moscow from above as a pillar of smoke
rises from afar and into the clouds. The analogy to Emperor Nero is obvious and
underscored by his associate’s comparing Moscow to Rome (in Rome’s favour). A
messenger from God suddenly appears and pleads with Woland to take the Master
and Margarita with him and grant them peace. When Woland wants to know why God
does not simply bring them to his dwelling if He cares about them so much, he
is told that what the Master and Margarita need is not light, but peace. Woland
agrees to grant God’s request. He sends his associate to summon the two lovers
and they embark on their journey. On the way, they pass through the centuries
and encounter Pontius Pilate who, troubled by his regret over having sent Jesus
of Nazareth to the cross, is stuck in a never-ending loop of anxiety. He, too,
is released by Woland upon the Master’s request. This fulfils the purpose of
the Master’s unfortunate novel and stands as a symbol for the unlimited power
of the written word even after it has been tossed to the flames.
“Manuscripts
don’t burn.”
