THE MASTER AND MARGARITA

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.”