M. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita". Part 2. Queen Margot: I'm dying for love
Margarita's rich and carefree life causes her great suffering. It has no emotions, no passion, no more love, which means there is no point. And she finds all this in a strange, lonely writer who lives in a squalid basement and is busy with the only thing important for him - writing a book about Pontius Pilate. What did the beautiful Margarita see in him, for the sake of which she was ready to turn her whole life?
“Who told you that there is no real, faithful, eternal love in the world? Let the liar cut off his vile tongue!
Follow me, my reader, and only me, and I will show you such love!"
The love story of the nameless Master and the beautiful Margarita fits into the plot of the book gradually, like the novel of the writer sprouts with the life of Mikhail Afanasyevich himself.
The romantic story of two lovers clearly illustrates the internal, subconscious motives of the attraction of a developed visual vector to a similarly developed sound one. Skin-visual beauty Margarita falls in love with a stranger at first sight, and he reciprocates her. Relations between Mikhail Bulgakov and Elena, his third wife, developed just as rapidly.
“Love jumped out in front of us, as a murderer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and hit both of us at once! This is how lightning strikes, this is how a Finnish knife strikes!"
Love for genius
Margarita's rich and carefree life causes her great suffering. It has no emotions, no passion, no more love, which means there is no point. And she finds all this in a strange, lonely writer who lives in a squalid basement and is busy with the only thing important for him - writing a book about Pontius Pilate. What did the beautiful Margarita see in him, for the sake of which she was ready to turn her whole life?
For a woman endowed with a developed visual vector, a calm and secure existence cannot overshadow the greatest value in her life - love! The Visual Margot falls in love with the Sound Master once and for all. In love with the sonic genius of her chosen one, Margot reads out the pages of his novel. She admires the strength of his intellect, his writing talent. He is able to create, she is ready to open his talent to people and is ready to fight for it.
In the same way, Elena Bulgakova devotes her life to the work of Mikhail Afanasyevich, protecting his works, being the keeper of his literary heritage.
“I do everything in my power to ensure that not a single line written by him leaves, so that his extraordinary personality does not remain unknown. This is the goal, the meaning of my life. I promised him a lot before my death, and I believe that I will do everything,”Elena writes to Bulgakov's brother Nikolai. Margarita is also selflessly going towards her goal.
She puts all of herself into this love, and therefore the disappearance of the Master brings her suffering. Margarita is ready for anything for her love, even for a deal with the devil.
Satan's ball
“No, wait … I know what I'm going for. But I do everything because of him, because I have no more hope for anything in the world. But I want to tell you that if you destroy me, you will be ashamed! Yes, it's a shame! I am dying because of love!"
Satan's ball frightens her to horror: all these dead, criminals, murderers, sorcerers and traitors cause both fear and disgust. However, Margot behaves in a truly patient regal manner, which deserves the approval and favor of Woland.
Having succumbed to an emotional outburst of pity for the child killer Frida, she asks for mercy for her. The act, from Woland's point of view, is stupid and illogical, but completely natural for Margarita. Having shown compassion for Frida, she asks for her even to the detriment of her own interests. The visual queen of the ball cannot turn away from the suffering of a person, even a criminal.
The image of Margarita is described by Bulgakov in the most detail, including appearance, behavior, actions and even thoughts. The fate of the Master is changed by the efforts of Margarita. The reader also observes the transformations of Woland's retinue during the last flight with her eyes, as well as the last refuge of the Master.
Elena, embodied on the pages of the novel in the image of Margarita, has always been and remains for Bulgakov a muse, companion, faithful wife and like-minded person. Both during life and after death.
“I have prepared a gift for you, worthy of you…”, Bulgakov will write to his Elena in Essentuki, and upon arrival in Moscow the manuscript of the novel will be waiting for her.
What else can a sound writer give his chosen one, if not the most dear to him - his creation.
Unnamed patient
The Master is a classic image of a writer with a sound vector. A quiet, thoughtful, introvert immersed in his thoughts, who spent all his money only to create conditions for himself for creativity.
Material values are not for him, the main thing in his sensations is a novel, literary thought-forms born in his imagination. The story of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua is the main thing for him! Events that excited his mind, because he "composed something that he had never seen, but which he probably knew that it was."
The Master creates his novel in solitude, practically in seclusion, plunging into deep sound concentration at work. He does not seek inspiration, does not consult with colleagues, does not select a theme for the work. The master is initially and absolutely firmly convinced of what he wants to write. He finds all the answers inside himself, he hears his novel and embodies it in a manuscript, no matter how much time and effort it takes.
The finished novel from the source of the highest pleasure turns into a source of suffering at the moment when the Master realizes that the work is not destined to see the light. The main goal of all efforts - to present the novel to the reader - has not been achieved. Everything was in vain, everything lost its meaning.
"And I went out into life, holding it in my hands, and then my life ended."
The master is overtaken by his greatest fear - he goes crazy, loses control over his mind and ends up in an asylum for the mentally ill. And he comes there himself, realizing that something was wrong with him.
"I went to bed sick and woke up sick."
“I knew that this clinic had already opened, and I walked across the city to it.”
The suffering caused by the novel turned out to be so great that the Master renounces everything that connected him with that world, even on his own behalf.
“I no longer have a surname,” the strange guest replied with gloomy contempt, “I gave it up, just like everything in life in general. Let's forget about her."
What did Bulgakov want to show by the namelessness of his Master? Perhaps, this is how the author portrayed a certain collective image of a writer of his era, writing on an unpopular topic, running counter to ideology, and therefore not censoring.
Perhaps this is a peculiar way of using one of the names of the devil, as an allusion to the fact that the novel was dictated by him, and this is a kind of "gospel of the devil", as a look at the evangelical events and their heroes from the dark side.
Meanwhile, Bulgakov succeeded in surprisingly accurately conveying the whole essence of the sound measure, as a part of the human unconscious, in particular its manifestation in literary creation. The desires of a person with a sound vector, their values, aspirations, priorities and habits, as well as fears and ways of thinking, are described with amazing accuracy.
Peace or light
Why, despite all the life and literary twists and turns, did the Master never deserve a reward even after death?
"He did not deserve the light, he deserved peace," Levi said in a sad voice."
What does peace mean, and why not light after all? What did the Master fail to do to receive the light, to be accepted in paradise, to earn eternal bliss?
Peace for a sound writer is the calming down of a rebellious soul, the end of torment, endless internal dialogue, a series of thoughts replacing one another without interruption, the end of the constant search for answers to eternal questions about the meaning of life, the essence of being. The master received answers and confirmation of his own innocence, his novel turned out to be reliable.
“Oh, how I guessed! Oh, how I guessed everything!"
But the Master doesn't get what? Endless pleasure and joy from the life lived. Why?
He was given a lot, even a lot, a rare sound engineer is given a temperament of this level. He was a genius. He was able to comprehend more than what he had done. He was given the talent of a writer. He had a revelation. But how did he use this talent? Is it in full force? What did he apply it to? How did it benefit people? Could you change their lives for the better?
He used the skill of a writer to write a novel. The one that he wanted himself, who was interesting to him and only to him. The Master used abstract thinking and a unique ability to concentrate to create a brilliant, but, unfortunately, not in demand, and therefore, in a certain sense, useless work.
With all the power of his mind, he could not cope with the mental illness that had arisen in him. He gave up. I hated and destroyed what I created with my own hands. Roughly speaking, he chose the easy path - succumbed to madness.
It is not for nothing that “cowardice is undoubtedly one of the most terrible vices”!
Why cowardice? Perhaps because it is scary to admit the erroneousness of your judgments, to cross out everything that you did, because you did it “for yourself”, wrote what asked to be outside, wrote about yourself and your own kind … and only by the end of my life I realized this.
Manuscripts don't burn
Bulgakov, like the Master, burned the novel, but then nevertheless restored it, and it turned out to be the most outstanding work of his literary heritage.
The novel is great in that everyone sees in it what he wants to see. One reads an ode to atheism, another a satirical depiction of Soviet society, the third understands it as a religious treatise "by contradiction", the fourth enjoys mysticism, not bothering especially with the depth of meaning.
His novel is like a mirror. We see in him what is within us. It does not contain clear answers "what is good and what is evil," but there is food for the mind. There is an atmosphere of a special time, there are events and their consequences, human vices and at the same time dignity. When reading, there is a very special feeling of the depth of what is happening. Not a single word is just thrown. Each character carries its own meaning.
We can see the same things in different ways, because "we speak with you in different languages, as always, but the things we talk about do not change from this …".
A novel for all time
Unlike his Master, Bulgakov certainly deserves light. The sound genius was given to comprehend a lot, and he conveyed this in his novel The Master and Margarita. If not at the level of complete understanding, then at the level of sensations, the writer conveys the finest facets of the human unconscious - the sound vector, visual, olfactory and others.
The meanings revealed in Bulgakov's literary work were so ahead of their time that their literal perception would be impossible. In this regard, the mystical shell of the novel turns out to be more than appropriate.
A systematic reading of The Master and Margarita is a special pleasure, as it allows you to see new facets of an outstanding work.
Read also:
M. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita". Part 1. Woland: I am a part of that power …
M. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita". Part 3. Pontius Pilate: Foundling and Son of the Astrologer
