The vast interpretations and multiple meanings that lie within Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita cannot be limited or reduced to just a singular point or explanation. It would be ludicrous for one to simply classify Bulgakov’s work as just a religious, ethical, social or political tract because the enforcement of only one of these points of view would hinder the reader’s insight into the depth of the entire novel. However, it is possible to be able to grasp the many themes and meanings of The Master and Margarita by the examination of one of the novel’s central characters, this character is found in both narratives of the novel and his name is Woland or, as he is also known, the devil. Woland is the most important character in the novel because he entices the people of Moscow, whether they want to or not and whether they are conscious of it or not, to rebel against the order of which they are accustomed too and to gain a new found sense of liberation. Colin Wright, in his work Mikhail Bulgakov: Life and Interpretations, writes, “And here we find the key to the whole book for, as we have seen, it is the individual non-conformists who are Bulgakov’s heroes, those who rebel – whether against God or man” (270). It is understandable that Bulgakov, having written this work in an oppressive surrounding that limited what he could and could not write, creates a hero who is in fact a rebel and other characters that are rebellious against those who stifle artistic freedom. In Vladimir Tumanov’s essay, Diabolus ex Machina: Bulgakov’s Modernist Devil, the author writes, “In this respect the modernist qualities of Bulgakov’s novel acquire a new dimension because Master i Margarita becomes a kind of artistic devil, fulfilli...
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...ivision of humanity into good and evil is no longer useful and the transcendence of the need for retribution is the goal” (362). With Woland, Bulgakov sends the message that humanity falls into a grey area and that one needs to show compassion to their fellow human beings instead of always seeking vengeance.
Works Cited
Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita. London: Picador, 1997.
Franklin, Simon. Introduction. The Master and Margarita. By Mikhail Bulgakov. 1992. Great Britain: Everyman’s Library, 1992.
Proffer, Ellendea. Bulgakov the Magician. Afterward. The Master and Margarita. By Mikhail Bulgakov. 1995. London: Picador, 1997.
Tumanov, Vladimir. Diabolus ex Machina: Bulgakov’s Modernist Devil. Vol. 35. Scando- Slavica, 1989.
Wright, Colin. Mikhail Bulgakov: Life and Interpretations. Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
Few authors can convey the raw emotion of world changing events in such a moving and simplistic fashion. Anna Ahkmatova is able to capture this through her almost tangible use of imagery. Her words can transport the reader through time, allowing them to feel the same pain and fear she survived in Russia during Stalin’s reign of terror. Ahkmatova’s writing is known for its abrupt changes in point of view, and quickly shifting stanzas. Her unique style and poetic form can be attributed to the emotional turmoil of the world changing events she and her nation suffered through; and her innate love for music, as found in Mussorgsky’s Russian Opera, Boris Godunov.
The following paper will focus on one of the most characteristically types of work for Chekhov: “The Lady and the Pet Dog”. Our aim is to portrait the character of Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, in the context of the story, extracting those elements that are characteristic for the period in which Chekhov wrote the story.
Dostoyevsky's writing in this book is such that the characters and setting around the main subject, Raskolnikov, are used with powerful consequences. The setting is both symbolic and has a power that affects all whom reside there, most notably Raskolnikov. An effective Structure is also used to show changes to the plot's direction and Raskolnikov's character. To add to this, the author's word choice and imagery are often extremely descriptive, and enhance the impact at every stage of Raskolnikov's changing fortunes and character. All of these features aid in the portrayal of Raskolnikov's downfall and subsequent rise.
In such poor living conditions, those that the slums of Russia has to offer, the characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment1 struggle, living day to day. Raskolnikov, the protagonist, experiences multiple layers of suffering (the thought of his murder causes him greater suffering than does his poverty) as does Sonia and Katerina Ivanovna (1). Through these characters as well as Porfiry Petrovitch, Dostoevsky wants the reader to understand that suffering is the cost of happiness and he uses it to ultimately obliterate Raskolnikov’s theory of an ubermensch which allows him to experience infinite love.
Dostoevsky was made aware of the problems with Nihilistic ideas while he was exiled in Siberia. Crime and Punishment was Dostoevsky’s first attempt at a psychological analysis of a person’s inner struggles to rationalize this radicalism. Raskolnikov represents that intelligentsia and is being used by Dostoevsky to portray and warn against succumbing to these ideals. Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov’s life to illustrate the implications and applications of this Nihilist to the public and then expands upon it in Demons.
Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg is a large, uncaring city which fosters a western style of individualism. As Peter Lowe notes, “The city is crowded, but there is no communality in its crowds, no sense of being part of some greater ‘whole.’” Mrs. Raskolnikov initially notices a change in her son marked by his current state of desperate depression, but she fails to realize the full extent of these changes, even after he is convicted for the murder. The conditions and influences are also noticed by Raskolnikov’s mother who comments on the heat and the enclosed environment which is present throughout the city. When visiting Raskolnikov, she exclaims "I'm sure...
Often times in literature, we are presented with quintessential characters that are all placed into the conventional categories of either good or bad. In these pieces, we are usually able to differentiate the characters and discover their true intentions from reading only a few chapters. However, in some remarkable pieces of work, authors create characters that are so realistic and so complex that we are unable to distinguish them as purely good or evil. In the novel Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky develops the morally ambiguous characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov to provide us with an interesting read and to give us a chance to evaluate each character.
Unrestrained by conscience, Vautrin holds that laws are for the weak, and those clever enough to realize this may overstep any boundaries they wish and dominate the rest of mankind. But where Balzac's characters act on this idea without repercussion, Raskolnikov makes a transgression and then begins immediately to question it. The result is a psychological inner battle between rationality and sentimental moralism, which is as much a contest between Empiricism and Romanticism as it is a contest between good and evil, or God and the Devil. The arena for this ideological contest is Petersburg, full of slums, revolutionary students and petty titular councilors. Scientifically and artificially constructed in the midst of marshland, the city itself is a symbol of the incompatibility of logical planning with humankind's natural sensibilities.
End of the late 80s. Russia is at the turning point of it’s history. Everything around transforms into something new: the political structure, the lifestyle, and the way of thinking. At these new times people get opportunity to read books, which had been only passed under the cloud of a night before. One of those books is Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog. Almost immediately after the book’s publication, director Vladimir Bortko makes a screen version of Heart of a Dog. It is considered one of the best adaptations of Bulgakov’s works, and is widely praised in public. Popularity of this adaptation is not accidental. The movie Heart of a Dog is showed through the eyes of a person from 80s. The person who is fed up with proletarian oppression and who craves for the future, which is free from communism. Bortko supports public moods and creates basically anti-communism movie. In pursuit of the approval of a crowd, the director produces distorted adaptation of Bulgakov’s story. It is can be explained with consideration on how political situation and the spirit of a society influences screen adaptation of the book.
The conflict between good and evil is one of the most common conventional themes in literature. Coping with evil is a fundamental struggle with which all human beings must contend. Sometimes evil comes from within a character, and sometimes other characters are the source of evil; but evil is always something that the characters struggle to overcome. In two Russian novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, men and women cope with their problems differently. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and the Master in The Master and Margarita can not cope and fall apart, whereas Sonya in Crime and Punishment and Margarita in The Master and Margarita, not only cope but pull the men out of their suffering.
The Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky stands at the very summit of Russian literature. No 19th-century writer had greater psychological insight or philosophical depth. None speaks more immediately and passionately to the mood and tone of the present century. This essay will discuss how Dostoyevsky's intent to portray a 'truly beautiful soul' manifests itself in the novel The Idiot, and access Dostoyevsky's success or failure in achieving his intention.
Within the tortured mind of a young Russian university student, an epic battle rages between two opposite ideologies - the conservative Christianity characteristic of the time, and a new modernist humanism gaining prevalence in academia. Fyodor Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment uses this conflict to illustrate why the coldly rational thought that is the ideal of humanism represses our essential emotions and robs us of all that is human. He uses the changes in Raskolnikov's mental state to provide a human example of modernism's effect on man, placing emphasis upon the student's quest for forgiveness and the effect of repressed emotion. The moral side of Raskolnikov's mind requires absolution in a Christian manner. This need obliviates his claim to be a Nietzschean superman, and illustrates that all humans have a desire for morality.
Hansen, Bruce. “Dostoevsky’s Theodicy.” Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996. At . accessed 18 November 2001.
This man is the absolute opposite of everything society holds to be acceptable. Here is a man, with intelligent insight, lucid perception, who is self-admitted to being sick, depraved, and hateful. A man who at every turn is determined to thwart every chance fate offers him to be happy and content. A man who actively seeks to punish and humiliate himself. Dostoyevsky is showing the reader that man is not governed by values which society holds to be all important.
In Dostoevsky's novels pain and some heavy burden of the inevitability of human suffering and helplessness form Russia. And he depicts it not with white gloves on, nor through the blisters of the peasant, but through people who are close to him and his realities: city people who either have faith, or secular humanists who are so remote from reality that even when they love humanity they despise humans because of their own inability to achieve or to create paradise on earth. His novels The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment are best examples of the poisonous effect of such ideals on the common man. The rebellion of these humanists against the system and the reality of human life becomes more important, thus love becomes the filter and the servant of pride and ideals. The cause of XIX century liberals becomes more important to them than the actual human being that might not fit the picture of their perfect and humane society. Through these problems and opposites that cross and overlap each other, Dostoevsky depicts social issues, especially the problem of murder, through an image of people who go through pain. He presents a graphical experience of ones who do not know how to deal with humanity and its problems. Dostoevsky himself does not give a clear solution nor does he leave one with the certainty of faith for an example. He says himself: