American Councils for International Education ACTR / ACCELS

M. BULGAKOV'S "MASTER I MARGARITA": THE TRUE ABSOLUTE

Author(s): Yuri Prizel
Source: Russian Language Journal / Русский язык, Vol. 30, No. 107 (Fall 1976), pp. 109-118
Published by: American Councils for International Education ACTR / ACCELS
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43669343
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Yuri Prizel*

M. BULGAKOV'S MASTER I MARGARITA:

THE TRUE ABSOLUTE

Webster's New World Dictionary defines "absolute" as

"whole; complete." In other words, if something is said to
be absolute, then it contains all the possible component
parts, with none missing. And if a work of art is attempt-
ing to present a complete picture of something, then it may
be said that the representation is "absolute."

In his novel Master i Margarita Mixail Bulgakov

attempted precisely this: to represent reality as a whole.
The means he employed to achieve this end will be examined
in this paper.

It is my contention that the novel's approach to real-

ity can be best elucidated by turning to the theoretical
writings of a literary group not in Russia but in France;
namely, the Surrealistes . The reasons for this choice will
be explained below.

As a writer, Bulgakov developed under the considerable

influence of both Russian and Western classical literatures.
He has dramatized Gogol's Mertvye duïi, written a biog-
raphy of Moliere, and among his early pseudonyms we en-
counter "Emma B."1 But he does not, at least in his ear-
lier work, seem to be particularly influenced by the liter-
ary currents of his time. For both personal and historical
reasons, Bulgakov's early work is quite traditional. Not
that there were no "modernistic" influences that might have
affected him; Bulgakov grew up in a literary atmosphere in-
fluenced by Valerij Brjusov, translator of Mallarmé and Ver-
lain, and was the contemporary of Blok and Belyj. Those in-
fluences, however, do not seem to have touched him. And
such literary trends as did develop in Western Europe be-
bween the two World Wars could little influence Bulgakov due
to the isolation of Bolshevik Russia.

*Yuri Prizel is a Ph. D. candidate in Comparative Lit-

erature at the City University of New York.

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 There is one influence, however, that can be discerned
both in Bulgakov's works and in those of his contemporaries
in Western Europe: the Gothic no vel. 2 I am referring here
to works of writers such as Lewis, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and
(in Bulgakov's case) Gogol '.3 In this respect, Bulgakov
was close to the French Surréalistes, who held the Gothic
novel in high esteem. André Breton, discussing the Gothic
novel, wrote: "Dans le domaine littéraire, le merveilleux
seul est capable de féconder des ouevres ressortissant à
un genre inférieur tel que le roman et d'un facon générale
tout ce qui participe de l'anecdote. Le Moine , de Lewis,
en est une preuve admirable. "4 Of course, any question of
Breton's direct influence on Bulgakov must be ruled out;
Breton's Manifeste du surréalisme was published in 1924,
when Russia was effectively isolated from the West. The
development of Bulgakov as a writer can, therefore, be con-
sidered independent.

The Gothic influence on Bulgakov is only a late devel-

opment in his writing. His earlier works, such as Belaja
gvardia or Zapiski molodogo vraaa, are written in a
realistic manner, as the term was understood in the nine-
teenth century. A departure from this mode of realism can
be discerned in such works as Rokovye jajca and Diavoliada'
these works, however, still do not show an appreci-
able Gothic influence. The first is more of a science fic-
tion work, with all the events explained with a degree of
plausibility from the scientific point of view, while in
the second, the bi zzare events (not very abundant, to be
sure) are made plausible by such traditional devices as mis-
taken identities, the character's intoxication, etc. The
line between "reality" and "dream" is still there. Only in
Master i Margarita does this line disappear, and "dream"
and "reality" are given "equal time" to complement each
other. In this novel, Bulgakov can be said putting into
practice Breton's theorizing on "la résolution future de ces
deux états, en apparence si contradictoires, que sont le
rêve et la réalité, en un sorte de réalité absolue, de sur-
réalité, si l'on peut ainsi dire. "5

Bulgakov, too, attempts to combine the two estates,

those of dream and of reality. For, if the so-called true
reality combines the two, then what we call "reality" would
be only relative. And if any "true" reality (as defined by
Breton) contains dreams, it is amorphous and changing. And
in relationship to the dreams, which cause such a higher
reality itself to be not so sharply defined, anything we
call "reality," including any dogma or philosophy advanced

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by humans, becomes just as relative and non-absolute, as
that other component of the higher reality, the dreams.
Such a relativity of what we call our "reality" is the
basic premise of Master i Margarita.

The cast of characters of the novel presents a mix-

ture of the commonplace and the marvelous. It includes,
among others, Jesus, Satan, Romans, Muscovites, a housewife
turned witch, a bookkeeper turned vampire, etc.

Such a cast of characters is not at all new in litera-

ture. With the exception of Jesus and, perhaps, Satan all
the others are more or less standard fare of the Gothic
novel. In this respect, one might think Bulgakov's work to
be but another anachronistic Gothic novel. A glance at the
table of contents would only support such a supposition.
The novel is neatly divided into thirty-two chapters and
supplied with an epilogue, in the good old nineteenth cen-
tury manner. A quotation from a very "respectable" source,
Goethe's Faust, is used as an epigraph. In short, all the
conventions of the traditional novel form are observed.
Had André Breton read the novel, he would have probably
carried out his threat and closed it after the first page,
perhaps even after the first paragraph; for Master i
Margarita starts in almost the same manner that has been
parodied by Breton in his Manifeste: "La marquise sortit
a cinque heures."" The opening paragraph of Master i
Margarita reads:
В час жаркого весеннего заката на Патри-
арших прудах появилось двое граждан. Первый
из них - приблизительно сорокалетний, одетый
в серенькую летнюю пару, - был маленького
роста, темноволос, упитан, лыс, свою прилич-
ную шляпу пирожком нес в руке, а аккуратно
выбритое лицо его украшали сверхъестествен-
ных размеров очки в черной роговой оправе.
Второй - плечистый, рыжеватый, вихрастый мо-
лодой человек в заломленной на затылок клет-
чатой кепке - был в ковбойке, жеваных белых
брюках и черных тапочках. 7
Compare this opening with the opening of Prestuplenie
i nakazanie a novel specifically singled out by Breton as
an example of "poor" writing and it will become clear that
Breton would have formed a very poor opinion of Bulgakov.
And Breton would have been wrong, because although at the
first glance the novel seems to be traditional, it is, nev-

ili

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ertheless, one of the most daring literary experiments to
come out of Russia.

J. H. Matthews writes that "[the modern novelist may]

reject many of the techniques the conventional novelist
brought as near as possible to perfection. Or, inverting
them, he [may] turn them to ridicule. He may even make
them serve purposes for which they were not designed."8
Bulgakov takes such liberties with the traditional form of
the Gothic novel. Into the Gothic gloominess he introduces
the element of humor. Let us take, for example, one of the
most sinister characters of the Gothic novel, the black
cat, and see what Bulgakov does to it:
Кот оказался не только платежеспособ-
ным но и дисциплинированным зверем. При
первом же окрике кондукторши он прекратил
наступление, снялся с подножки и сел на
остановке, потирая гривенником усы (р. 66).
Or the demon Azazello, who deals with Poplavskij the way an
ordinary hoodlum would:
Без всякого ключа Азазелло открыл
чемодан, вынул из него громадную жареную
курицу без одной ноги, завернутую в про-
маслившуюся газету, и положил ее на пло-
щадке. . . . Затем рыжий разбойник ухватил
за ногу курицу и всей этой курицей плашмя,
крепко и страшно так ударил по шее Поплав-
ского, что туловище курицы отскочило, а
нога осталась в руках Азазелло. . . . Ос-
тавшийся наверху Азазелло вмиг обглодал
куриную ногу и кость засунул в боковой
карманчик трико, вернулся в квартиру и с
грохотом закрылся (pp. 253-254).

Another of Bulgakov's departures from traditional Goth-

ic form is that of location. Normally a Gothic novel takes
place in a remote ancient mansion, in a castle in the moun-
tains, etc; there is very little communication with the out-
side sorld. But Bulgakov's demons station themselves right
in the middle of Moscow, walk its streets, talk on the tele-
phone, and so on. Their supernatural pranks take place
against the background of a modern metropolis. But this
juxtaposition does not seem incongruous to the reader. The
humorous and even slightly mocking touch with which Bulgakov
treats his demons lends them an appearance of humanness,
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of commonpl acenes s. They are able, therefore, to blend in-
to the twentieth century almost perfectly.

Such unorthodox treatment of the traditional cast of

Gothic characters fits Sharon Spencer's concept of a "closed"
novel. A "closed" novel according to Spencer is "a self-
enclosed, private, usually intense, and often extremely
haunting world in which the accustomed types of literary
characters and the usual relationships in time and space are
inappropriate ," ( i ta lies added.).'
The novel consists of two plots. The first is describ-
ing the fate of a certain writer, referred to simply as the
Master, his lover Margarita, and the aid they are receiving
from Satan, disguised as a Professor Woland. This plot takes
place in Moscow in the late 1920s. The second plot takes
place in Jerusalem, and is dealing with the trial of Jesus
and the Crucifixion. In other words, the two plots are wide-
ly separated in space and time. Bulgakov, however, manages
what one might call an organic transition from one plot to
another:

-И доказательств никаких не требуется, -

ответил профессор и заговорил негромко, при-
чем его акцент почему-то пропал: -Все просто:
в белом плаще с кровавым подбоем, шаркающей
кавалерийской походкой, ранним утром четыр-
надцатого числа весеннего месяца нисана . . .

Глава 2

Понтий Пилат

В белом плаще с кровавым подбоем, шар-

кающей кавалерийской походкой, ранним утром
четырнадцатого числа весеннего месяца ниса-
на в крытую коллонаду между двумя крыльями
дворца Ирода Великого вышел прокуратор Иудеи
Понтий Пилат (р. 26-27)

In other words, the transition from one plot to another

is done by means of repeating phrases. The reader, thus, is
almost unaware of having been transferred from Moscow to
Jerusalem, from twentieth century into first. True, each
time we have such a transition between plots, Bulgakov tries
to "rationalize" it, making it once a story told by Woland
to Berlioz and Bezdomnyj, once Bezdomnyj's dream, and twice
quotations from the Master's novel. Still, the repeated
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phrases, as in the given example, tend to destroy the ef-
fect of such "rationalizations." Moreover, if we were to
remove the four fragments of the Crucifixion story from
the rest of Bulgakov's novel and put them together, they
would still make a coherent whole; they would be a story in
their own right, although they come from different sources.
This unity of the Crucifixion fragments tends to nullify
even more whatever effect the "rational" introduction of
the fragments might have had. And finally, in chapter 29,
one of the characters of the Crucifixion plot, Matthew, is
shown conversing with Moland on a roof top in Moscow. The
two plots, so widely separated in time and space, are thus
joined together.

Another device employed by Bulgakov to unify the two

plots involved recurring images. The most important of
these is the storm. There are altogether four storms in
the novel. One takes place in Moscow, and three in Jerusa-
lem, as parts of the Crucifixion plot. Of these three, the
last one is a part of the Master's novel. The first storm
in Jerusalem breaks out of a Friday afternoon. The storm
in Moscow also takes place on a Friday afternoon, thus
bringing the two places together. Of the remaining two,
one is a part of Bezdomnyj's dream, and one is quoted in
the Master's novel. Thus by means of the storm in dreams,
in reality, and in art, the past and the present, the real
and the imaginary are brought into one focus. The time is
moving in a vertical rather than a horizontal line. The
two temporal planes, occuring in Moscow and in Jerusalem,
are superimposed on each other, with no way of telling their
order of succession.

In addition to compressing the flowing time sequence

into one compact entity, the novel also abolishes the dif-
ference between the finite and the infinite in time. Bul-
gakov very carefully notes the passage of calendar time in
his novel. The events in both Moscow and Jerusalem occur
between Thursday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, i.e., in
three days. At the same time, however, during his ball Wo-
land makes the moon stop at midnight, prolonging the ball
and the supper that follows at his wish. Needless to say,
this interference with the flow of time is noticed only by
those participating in the ball, without affecting the
"normal" flow of time on the streets of Moscow. The infin-
ite is thus crammed into the finite, the eternal into the
temporal. Time becomes subjective rather than objective.
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 Although the two plots in the novel occur at different
locations, the distortion of time involves the distortion
of space as well. Moscow, Jerusalem, Jaita, the undisclosed
location of the witches' Sabbath - all are condensed into
one single point with the condension of time. Here again
Bulgakov takes the infinite and crams it into the finite.
The enormous palace in which Woland's ball takes place is
apparently situated in a modest Moscow apartment; the trip
between Moscow and Jaita takes but a split second, and so
on.

Such mutual distortion of space and time may be com-

pared to certain film-making techniques. "When events in
time are spatially organized according to the techniques of
juxtaposition that are employed in montage, they lose both
their inevitable sequential nature and their quality of ir-
reversibility. They may, if the film-maker [or the writer]
desires, it, take on the appearance of simultaneity. . . .
At its simplest, the spatial ization of time in the novel is
the process of splintering the events that, in a tradition-
al novel, would appear in a narrative sequence and of re-
arranging them so that past, present, and future actions
are presented in reversed, or combined, patterns; when this
is done, the events in the novel have been 1 spatial ized, 1
for the factor that constitutes their orientation to reali-
ty is the place where they occur. Bulgakov employs pre-
cisely such methods of juxtaposition to achieve such simul-
taneity, to compress space and time into one entity.

As a part of his "distortion" of the conventional con-

cepts of space and time, Bulgakov brings Matthew to Moscow.
Since Matthew also appears in Bezdomnyj's dream and later
as one of the characters in the Master's novel, he may be
considered a link which unites various parts of the whole
book. Now, if we set up a frame of reference in which the
events in Moscow will be considered "reality," then we may
say that through Matthew, Bulgakov tends to obliterate
the conventional distinction between "reality," "dream,"
and "art." In order to obliterate this distinction even
further, Bulgakov tries to abolish the difference between
the Master's novel and his own. In chapter 13 of Bulga-
kov's novel, the Master says that he is planning to con-
clude his work with the words: . пятый прокура-
тор Иудеи всадник Понтий Пилат"; and in chapter 26
of the book he does just that. These are likewise the words
that close Bulgakov's novel. The absolute concepts of
"life" and "art" are thus abolished along with the absolute
concepts of "space" and "time."

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 At this point we might pose the question: why does
Bulgakov do it? What is he trying to accomplish by dis-
torting the conventional notions of space and time in this
manner? Perhaps Bulgakov's answer is the same as the one
that applies to many modern novelists: Bulgakov realizes
that in the modern world there are no absolutes. Like most
his fellow writers, Bulgakov must have been influenced by
post-Einsteinian physics, which claims that everything is
relative to the point of view of the observer, i.e. our
point of view is necessarily distorted by our observation
point and an entirely objective vision is impossible.
While time stands still at Satan's ball, it continues to
move for the man in the street. While Margarita sees Wo-
land's castle, the neighbors think it is just another apart-
ment in a Moscow tenement. Who is right? Bulgakov does
not answer that. Does Annuska pay for the calico she buys
with a ten ruble note or a ten dollar bill? She claims it
is ten rubles; the salesgirl maintains it is ten dollars.
The reader is never sure what is the truth. And it seems
to be perfectly plausible that events in Jerusalem and Mos-
cow should be happening simultaneously, although the two
cities are widely separated in space and the events narrated
are just as widely separated in time.

This relativity is understood only by the one true art-

ist in the novel, the Master. His real name, if indeed he
has one, is not given, for a real artist has no need for
such arbitrary identifications as names. At the time of the
novel he is an inmate in a psychiatric clinic on the out-
skirts of Moscow (a rather prophetic setting in view of what
is happening in Moscow today). The psychiatrist who is
treating him there is unaware of the fact that the Master is
an Artist in the highest sense of the word. To him the Mas-
ter is just another patient. And one cannot really blame
him. Judged by the accepted norms of society the Master is
suffering from a psychological disorder of some sort. Yet
it is precisely this disorder which opens for him the vision
of a higher truth.

Through the Master, Bulgakov introduces the figure of

Jesus, who is portrayed in a very unconventional manner. It
is noteworthy that Bulgakov, who does not hesitate to satur-
ate his novel with devils, witches, and even Satan himself,
protrays Jesus as a human being, robbing Him of any myth.
The story of the trial conducted by Pontius Pilate and the
Crucifixion have little in common with the Gospel account.
Both Jesus and Pontius Pilate, instead of representing pure
good and pure evil respectively, as they do in Christian

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literature, are presented as two men. They have their dif-
ferences, to be sure, stemming from different cultural back-
grounds, but they also have certain similarities. Both are
intelligent, both are concerned with ethical questions, and
both have philosophical inclinations, which are given full
reign by Jesus but are severly restrained by Pontius Pilate.
Both feel sympathy for each other. Jesus pities Pontius,
Pontius attempts to save Jesus and, failing in this, uses
his influence to ease Jesus 's last hours on the cross
and avenges Him by having Judas murdered. He is, therefore,
scarcely the absolute evil incarnate. And if there is no
absolute evil, then there can be no absolute good either,
for the one is only obvious in contrast to the other. Like
space and time, good and evil are subjective, depending on
the point of view of the observer. And when Jesus claims
that all the people are "good" He, by negating evil, negates
good as well. By asking Satan (Woland) to help the Master,
Jesus admits that both His "good" and Woland 's "evil" are
subjective concepts.

But the Master, the true Artist, goes even further.

It is his word that is necessary to free Pontius Pilate to
join Jesus, although Jesus has already asked for Pilate's
release. For the Artist (the Master) rises above "good"
and "evil," uniting both in one cosmic vision.

Good and evil, time present and time past, reality and
dream--are neither absolutes nor even separate parts of the
same entity. They are merely different manifestations of
one whole, of a surreal-ity which presents itself in a dif-
ferent manner on different occasions to different men. Bul-
gakov, by destroying the accepted concepts of time and
space, of life and art, of good and evil envelopes his novel
in a surrealistic focus. The real absolute is not an oppo-
sition to other points of view, but rather the synthesis of
these into one entity, one unseparable totality.

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 NOTES

1. V. Lakšin, "O prozę Mixaila Bulgakova i o nem samom,"

in Мгхаг I Bulgakov , Izbrannaja proza , (Moscow: Xudo-
Žestvennaja literatura, 1966), p. 8.
2. The Gothic novel is characterized by a strong element
of the supernatural. Its cast of characters normally
includes witches, demons, ghosts, etc., and its setting
is ancient castles or mansions, with hidden passages,
secret doors, traps, and so on. However, it should be
pointed out that while the conflict of a conventional plot
of a Gothic novel hinges on the opposition of pure good
(e.g. the beautiful heroine) and pure evil (e.g. the
evil squire) Bulgakov, as will be seen later, uses the
Gothic novel convention for quite different ends.
3. V. Lakšin, p. 12.
4. André Breton, Manifestes du surréalisme, (Paris: Gal-
limard, 1971), p. 24.
5. Ibid., pp. 23-24.
6. Ibid. , p. 15.
7. Mixail Bulgakov, Master i Margarita, (Frankfurt: "Pos-
sev," 1969), p. 11. All the subsequent quotations are
from this text.

8. J. H. Matthews, Surrealism and the Novel, (Ann Arbor:

The Univ. of Michigan Press, 1966), p. 10.
9. Sharon Spencer, Space, Time and Structure in the Mod-
ern Hovel, (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1971),
pp. 2-3.
10. Ibid. , pp. 155, 156.

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