On top of this bald head was a gold crown—the old man at Capreae who appears to Pilate as he hears the second charge is the Emperor Tiberius, who suffered from leprosy according lo one of Bulgakov's sources. This little section has a strong connection to a story about death at sea (also mentioned in Bulgakov's first novel), Bunin 's "The Gentleman from San Francisco," in which there is also a reference to Capri and Tiberius. Heads are important throughout this novel, which features a prominent beheading. In apocalyptic thought the head was often a symbol for Rome itself.
Judos of Keriolh—Following the French writer Renan (La Vie de Jesus), Bulgakov is at pains to use an explanatory name, instead of the more usual Judas Iscariot.
Lit the candles... —according to Jewish law, a trap for criminals had to be well-lit, to avoid mistaken identity. By this Bulgakov is indicating an entire subtext in Pilate's understanding of who Judas really is, and who has employed him.
Dlsmos, Gestos—these names are mentioned in the Apocryphal New Testament of Nicodemus, which Bulgakov drew on in addition to the historically acceptable sources.
Bar-rabban—Bulgakov uses this instead of the Varawa of the Russian Bible; again, Renan is the likely source. This name means simply "son of the father," another messianic reference; both Bar-rabban and Yeshua are thus seen as messianic figures by their followers, and the authorities simply have to decide which is the more dangerous.
Knight—Pilate is a member of the ordo eauester (equestrian class), the usual category for a man who became a procurator (prefect) in Roman times. This word, vsad-nth, may be translated as horseman, cavalryman, rider or knight. In the sense that it means belonging to an elile group, it is normally translated as knight. The figure of the cavalryman or knight is encountered in many of Bulgakov's works, and clearly had a special autobiographical meaning, as well as a clear connection lo the famous four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Solomon's Pool... Insignia... —these are old wounds between the two antagonists. This entire conversation between Pilate and the high priest is saturated with references to previous struggles between the Jews and the Roman government. Philo of Alexandria and FlaviusJosephus (two of Bulgakov's main sources) describe these in-
342 Commentary
cidents, which involve either iiuensitivity on the part of Pilate to local religious custom, or deliberate provocation to revolt, which then the procurator might brutally repress. In one case thejews protested the image of the emperor carried on the insignia of the soldiers entering Jerusalem, since it was against their religious belief. In the end, the insignia were removed. In the other case, concerning Solomon's Pool, Pilate had an aqueduct built extending from the pool to the city, a distance of 37 kilometers. Pilate confiscated temple property to pay for the aqueduct, in direct conflict with the priests who protested, and an uprising was the result. This revolt was put down by Pilate's soldiers with great cruelty.
ten o'clock in the morning—a mysterious phrase, given that we know it is almost noon from other remarks. Bulgakov made relatively few changes in the Pilate chapters from version to version, so it is unlikely that an important final phrase would be an error. In all versions of this chapter the sentence was to he pronounced at noon, with the sun blazing over Pilate's head. What did begin at ten o'clock, of course, is the interrogation of Yeshua. It may be that we are meant to be taken back to the beginning of everything, in which the sense of this phrase could be "it happened" at ten o'clock in the morning.
CHAPTER 3
The Metropole—the beautiful tiim-of-the-ceniury hotel in Moscow's center, used at this time for high-ranking foreigners.
And the devil doesn't exist either?—the Manichean theme l>egun in the epigraph is here restated. If there is no God, there is no Devil; but the atheist Berlioz, as the reader by now knows, has just spent time with the devil.
He just caught a glimpse of the gilded moon high above—solar and lunar themes multiply in this novel. Some characters are tortured by the sun, some by the moon. This is one of several motifs which recur almost musically in different contexts— roses, severed heads, knives, the colors black, red, and yellow, etc.
CHAPTER 4
The threesome—Woland, the choirmaster, and the cat are an unholy trinity, and Ivan is about to have a baptism in the Moscow River (at the very location where the Church of Christ the Redeemer had earlier stood), followed by his version of the Stations of the Cross. There are many details here which are allusions to events of the New Testament—events which are not described in the Pilate chapters, but which are given in parodie form in the Moscow chapters, a pattern which will continue throughout.
building No. 13—an inside joke. Bulgakov and his first wife had lived in a wretched communal apartment in a building No. 13. Various characters, including the Annushka who spilled the sunflower oil come from this part of Bulgakov's life. An attempt to solve the housing crisis, a communal apartment was an infernal living arrangement, not unlike a boarding house. Six or seven families, sometimes more, would share the common areas of kitchen and bathroom, often resulting in personality clashes as people of wildly different backgrounds and habits were forced to live together.
the omnipresent orchestra—at this time all Moscow apartments had radio receivers which received the same station. Music, and especially opera, which Bulgakov-loved, will play a role throughout the novel, often as a counterpoint to comically banal action. Opera is connected to the characterization through voice type as well:
Commentary 343
Woland's bass emerges in odd contexts (sometimes without his name being mentioned), and Yeshua's hoarseness is underscored.
CHAPTER 5
Griboyedov—the name of the building housing the writers' organization is clearly meant to evoke Herzen House, which in the 1920s and 1930s was the location for many literary organizations. It had a nice restaurant, which prompted satire from the poet Mayakovsky in the poem named "Herzen House." Alexander Herzen was a famous literary and political figure of the previous century, as was Alexander Griboye-dov, but Bulgakov had other reasons for choosing the latter. Griboyedov's great play Woe from Wit (1822-24), was a favorite reference point for Bulgakov, himself a playwright. In this chapter Ivan is again caught in a literary situation parody, this time as a pathetic version of the brilliant Chatsky in Griboyedov's play who is considered insane because he speaks the truth.
The other important aspect of this chapter is its wonderfully accurate portrayal of what it meant to be a coddled Soviet writer, and the kind of jealousy provoked by the various privileges the Writers' Union could confer.
Perelygino—read Peredelkino, even now the prestigious location outside of Moscow for the intellectual elite. The Klyazma is the river nearby.
Amvrosy—the Russian version of Ambrose, a very unusual and somewhat humorous name, as are most of the others in this chapter—Hieronymus Poprikhin not only has a peculiar first name for Russian, his last name contains the root meaning "fidget."
twelve writers—another parody situation: twelve writers are arguing over who will get a place at the writers' summer resort, as opposed to the Last Supper, when the discussion is of who will be prominent in the kingdom yet to come.
Hallelujah—Bulgakov uses this song several times in this novel, usually as the theme of the inferno arrives. The specific reference is to Vincent Youmans' song Hallelujah! which was published in Russia in 1928. This is another example of traditional religious motifs turning up in parodie form. Alleluia means something quite different in its traditional context—praise to the Lord.
Glukharyov began dancing—this little paragraph owes a great deal to Gogol (as do many other touches in the novel). The list of names and descriptions combine to give the reader the impression that hundreds of people are dancing. Most of the names have funny associations: Glukharyov (wood-grouse), Dragunsky (Dragoon), Cher-dachki (attics), Pavianov (baboon), Bogokhulsky (blasphemer), Sladky (sweet), Spichkin (matches), Buzdyak (rowdy).
Ioann from Kronstadt—Archpriest Ioann of Kronstadt (1829-1908) was a famed preacher who was also said to be a miracle worker.
zubrovka—Polish bison-grass vodka.
Ryukhin—this name is a negative one, having at its root the meaning to crash, fall down.
cabdriver—the driver of a horse-drawn carriage. In this case the Russian is likhach, meaning the highest class of the three classes of cabbies competing against taxis in the late 1920s in the capital.
CHAPTER 6
wrecker—a key political code word for the period, meaning a person who actively worked against the regime, damaging equipment, etc. not unlike the similar "sabo-
344 Commentary
teur" (who sabotaged less actively, by not working, for example), the always popular "enemy of the people," "kulak" (rich peasant), etc. Politically correct people were encouraged to seek out such persons and "unmask" them to the authorities. The result was sometimes arrest.
Soar,.. Unfurl—these poems arc clearly paeans to the Soviet banner.
metal man on a pedestal—reference to the statue of Pushkin on Pushkin Square. This jealous, Soviet second-rate poet is to some degree an amalgam of a number of figures, but he is clearly meant to at least partially evoke Mayakovsky, the poet of the Revolution. As he looks at the statue and broods about'why Pushkin got famous ("Storm with mist" is a line from a famous poem by Pushkin, much loved by Bulgakov), there is a connection to Mayakovsky's poem "Jubilee" (1924), in which Mayakovsky revises his previously negative view of the great poet. Although Bulgakov and Mayakovsky had opposing views of Russian culture, all evidence indicates that Bulgakov nevertheless thought Mayakovsky, whom he knew personally, was a real poet, unlike Ryukhin. Ryukhin is of such primitive culture that he refers to the man who killed Pushkin in a duel in 1837 as a while guard, a contemporary term of abuse, meaning those who fought on the side of the monarchy during the Russian Civil War, a term which actually applies to Bulgakov who was briefly on the White side after the Revolution. Mayakovsky, who committed suicide in 1930 (an event which much struck Bulgakov), had earlier referred to Bulgakov satirically in his play The Bedbug, and this appears to be Bulgakov's settling of accounts with him.
Abrau champagne—Soviet champagne, usually known by its full name as Abrau Dyurso.
CHAPTER 7
LUthodeyev—derived from an old noun meaning "evil-doer." Styopa (nickname for Stepan) and his hangover parallel that of the state and the character of Suva Oblonsky in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
six-storey building on Sadovaya Street—Bulgakov has located the evil apartment in the building he lived in during his wretched early years in Moscow, when he and his wife lived in a communal apartment with a motley group of people who were to inspire some of his most negative portraits.
people started disappearing—although the casual reader might not really focus on it, disappearance, arrest, interrogation, and punishment occur suprisingly often in this work (although often displaced to the Pilate chapters), reflecting well-known features of everyday life as the 1930s wore on. Bulgakov is consciously mixing details and atmosphere of the two decades, since he began the novel in 1928, and worked on it throughout the 1930s. Arrests became much more widespread among the people he knew, or knew of, after the killing of Kirov in 1934 which triggered massive "reprisals" (some evidence indicates that Stalin had the popular boss of Leningrad killed himself). Bulgakov's friends were not spared, and it was common to have a suitcase packed in advance in case of a knock on the door in the middle of the night. The narrator is amusingly ingenuous here when referring to obviously politically motivated acts as witchcraft. Such events were nonetheless mysterious in reality in that no logical reasons were required for someone to be held or arrested.
Pyramidon—trademark name for aminopyrine, a drug used as aspirin would be later.
And here I am!—The first words spoken by Mephistopheles in the Russian libretto of Gounod's Fausl.
Commentary 345
a seul on the door—so that nothing will be touched before a police investigation. Styopa is assuming that Berlioz has been arrested.
Azazello (also Aniel)—demon of the waterless desert or the ritual scapegoat, according to several mentions in the Old Testament; Satan's standard bearer (in Milton's Paradise Ijxst, for example); and, most relevant here, also identified as the fallen angel who taught men magic and women how to paint their faces.
Messire—a French term of address, used to indicate respect; "sir" would be an equivalent in English. Bulgakov is deliberately using the French in the Russian text.
CHATTER 8
Dr. Stravinsky—another musical name, that of the composer Igor Stravinsky.
Ivan—in the course of this chapter Ivan begins to seem more and more like the folklore Ivan, called Ivanushka, who seems a fool but always turns out to be right.
There ore some smart people even among the intelligentsia—as a young proletarian poet. Bezdomny has been trained to believe that the intelligentsia are useless. This was a serious issue for Bulgakov who spent much of his career defiantly defending his class.
CHAPTER 9
Nikonor Ivanovich Bosoi— bosoi means barefoot in Russian, and clearly points to the peasant nature of this character. This character and his milieu are drawn from Bulgakov's experiences with Moscow's communal apartment life in the early 1920s. For Bulgakov, the Moscow housing crisis was a moral category of ils own, as people spent years trying to get a room in a good location, or searched obituaries to see who had died—and left an apartment empty. Bosoi is the chairman of the house committee, which means he is in charge of all basic changes within the building. Although the chairmen were supposed to be elected by the inhabitants of the building, they in fact turned into permanent tyrants who entered apartments without permission, controlled how many people could live in an apartment, whether things were fixed, and whether bribes were required to get them fixed.
pelmeni—small meat-filled dumplings.
Today I'm unofficial, but tomorrow...—a remark reflective of the reality of the mid-19305 when high (and low) officials were replaced with stunning rapidity as the political fortunes of their protectors rose and fell; many of them lost not only their positions but their freedom as well.
Korovyov—this character has a number of literary associations. He is dressed like the shabby devil found tormenting han in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamauw, and certainly shares that character's impudent, over-familiar manner. Bulgakov is on record as having said that undue familiarity was a characteristic he could not bear. Ko-rovyov's other name in the novel is Fagot (meaning a bassoon), a musical reference in Russian, but in French and Italian the name also means a silly person, or a trickster. This character is later identified as a choirmaster, which brings another literary figure to mind, that of E. T. A. Hoffmann's Kapelmeister Kreisler. While Hoffmann's Kater Murr h also a possible source for the talking cat. Behemoth (the Russian word for hippopotamus), Bulgakov himself was surrounded by cats during his second marriage to the animal-loving Lyubov Belozerskaya, and was a close observer of animals in general (see his Heart of a Dog).
a temporary residence permit—due to the housing shortage (and a need to keep
346 Commentary
the provincial population from flooding the large cities), Russia had very strict rules concerning residency in cities and movement within the country in general. This was all the more true for foreigners, who were carefully tracked at all times. Bosoi is taking a big chance here, unless he clears it with the secret police.
CHAPTER 10
Varenukha—this name is based on that of an intoxicating vodka-based berry beverage.
"the cliffs, my refuge..."—a line from Schubert's "Refuge," with words by Ludwig Rellsab, from the Romantic composer's last song cycle, Sthwanengaang. Schubert had special significance for Bulgakov. See note to Chapter 32.
CHAPTER 12
George Bengalsky—another humorous name, suggesting a Bengal tiger, among other things; the first name in Russian is the Frenchified Zhorzh instead of the Russian Georgy. Bengalsky is also a character in a famous Russian novel from the beginning of the century, Sologub's The Petty Demon. This character represents a type who aroused Bulgakov's aversion as he visited popular entertainments (which did indeed include foreign magic acts)—this sort of a master of ceremonies was often more a political worker than an entertainer, and was there to guarantee the educational value of a given event.
Fagot—meaning bassoon in Russian. See note to Chapter 9 under Korovyov.
Behemoth—while this is the Hebrew name given to a beast in Job (which is apparently a mishearing of the Egyptian word for the hippopotamus), and he is listed as the Grand Cup-bearer to Satan in sources on magic, there is another more likely source for the name. In Goethe's Faust a poodle (Mephistopheles in disguise), turns into a hippo at the very moment when Faust translates from the Gospels.
chairman of the Acoustics Commission—a made-up organization, but one which was quite possible in these years of bureaucratic control of the theater, when many were employed in meaningless jobs.
Luisa—refers to the role of Luisa Miller in Schiller's play Treachery and Ijove.
the... provocative words of the march—the words are from an 1839 vaudeville piece, reprinted in 1937, called "Lev Gurych Sinichkin, or a Provincial Debutante."
CHAPTER 13
Enter the Hero—literally, "The Appearance of the Hero." Here Bulgakov himself underscores that he is aware how odd it is to have a major figure (whose name is used in the title) first appear more than a third of the way through a novel. Up to this point one could easily conclude that Woland or Ivan is the real hero. Certain aspects of the Master are very Bulgakovian—his need for quiet, his dislike of certain critics (all given names which hint at real critics), being attacked in print for something that was only partially published, etc. Bulgakov was quite different in temperament, however, quite far from the Master's passivity, and unlike his hero, he had a sense of humor. Certain things about the Master (his state of mind, his burning of the novel) bring to mind not only Bulgakov himself, but his favorite writer, Nikolai Gogol. In earlier variants of the novel the Gogol allusion was made explicit, but here it is merely a trace, an association.
the opera Fautt— Gounod's trittst was one of Bulgakov's favorite works, and was a
Commentary 347
cnicial thematic element of his first novel. White Guard. In the sense that The Master and Margarita is operatic in style and structure, Gounod's work is more important for the novel's atmosphere than Goethe's poem.
I am the Master—this phrase can be translated as "I am a master." The sense is both master as opposed to apprentice, and master in the sense of teacher and artist.
a private home builder—a very special class of people. During the New Economic Policy (NEP), instituted in 1921, certain lucky people were allowed to engage in private construction of small buildings and actually to own the building. This situation did not last very long, due to abuses on the part of entrepreneurs and to the Party's need to reassert control. Bulgakov exhibited a cnnsistenüy negative attitude towards the profiteers of NEP, both in his journalism and in his artistic works. Bulgakov himself rented one of his apartments from a private home builder.
a sink...—the Master is said to be proud of this sink "for some reason." The reason is that in communal apartments sinks were normally only in the shared areas of kitchen and bathroom. Unlike many people, the Master could wash in private.
disturbing yellow flowers—mimosa. The symbolic color scheme in this novel is chiefly based on red, black, and while. Margarita's flowers are a symbol of misery— dark yellow being the color of the madhouse, as well as the color of betrayal. The only other important yellow-black combination is that of the yellow M sewed on to the Master's black cap—which he does wear in the madhouse. In Bulgakov's symbolic system, the best flowers are red roses (also important in Faust, and Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust) which stand for immortal beauty. However, Pilate's cape-lining and the pool of wine at his feet are blood-red, of course, and point to an opposite meaning.
Tverskaya—the main street leading down to the Kremlin area, called Gorky Street for much of the Soviet period, and now once again known as Tverskaya. Although many landmarks in this novel are related to realia of Moscow (the restaurant mentioned in this section is the Prague, for example), Bulgakov freely changes geographical reality when he needs to. just as he does in the Pilate sections. The aim is verisimilitude rather than accuracy, a point to keep in mind at alt times.
my secret wife—twentieth<entury Russians refer to any serious partner as a husband or wife, whether or not the marriage has been legalized. The idea is that the serious nature of the relationship is indicated by these words. Margarita is, of course, married to someone else, but she is more than a lover to the Master.
a novel on such a strange subject—there is much that is autobiographical here. Bulgakov's first novel. White Guard, was only partially published in ajournai in 1925, but he read it to various literary groups, whose general reaction was that one could never get a work on such a subject published. The real attacks, however, came in 1926 when Bulgakov turned the novel into a hit play for the Moscow Art Theater, under the name The Days of the Turbins. Indeed, nothing could have been stranger than Bulgakov's subject, namely the fate of a pro-monarchist family in Kiev during the Civil War. The attacks described in this section of The Master and Margarita are clearly distillations of the ones various critics made on Bulgakov's plays, up to and including the play Molière, which was banned after a few performances in 1936.
Ariman—Bulgakov has given a real critic (Averbakh) the name of the Zoroastrian evil spirit
something about slanting rain and despair—the adjective slanting as applied to rain here has attracted the notice of Russian critics, who see in this section a reference to Mayakovsky's poem "Homeward" (magazine variant), in which he talks about wanting to be understood by his country, but if he isn't—he will pass by on the side as slanting rain does. The words "something about" here do seem to indicate a hidden meaning. "I remember it..."—the Yanovskaya text leaves this paragraph out as not be-
348 Commentary
longing to the final draft, but without it the Master is being attacked for an unpublished work. Later in this chapter (in the version Yanovskaya does use), Margarita is said to be asking the Master's forgiveness for having advised him to publish an excerpt—obviously this section is needed for that remark to make sense. Saakyants leaves it in. It is impossible to know which version Bulgakov would have chosen if he were not worrying about censorship. While it was theoretically possible to be attacked for an unpublished work, Bulgakov's own experience was of being attacked for the partially published White Guard, and the plays which were performed, even if only through the dress-rehearsal stage.
Pilatism—the Russian here has the suffix china, which is hard to convey in English, but is extremely insulting.
Old Believer—see note to Solovki in Chapter One. As the son of a professor of theology, Bulgakov was knowledgeable about those who continued, even under Soviet power, to rebel against the change of liturgy initiated in 1653. The reforms in the religious practices aroused cries of Antichrist and apocalypse among the Old Believers, for whom true failli was ¡nalterably tied to correct/orraj of worship.
"Completely joyless autumn days... such a chapter will not do"—these three paragraphs are in the Saakyants text, but are not included in the Yanovskaya text Yanovskaya looked at various drafts and decided that this section did not belong in the final one. However, I feel that this description of the treacherous neighbor is essential, and that very likely self-censorship played a role if Bulgakov really planned to leave it out. It is unlike Bulgakov to give so little information about the author of the Master's misfortune. The time of year is meaningful for Russian readers, since autumn and spring were times of increased arrests, as the government tried to distract the populace from the regime's economic and agricultural failures.
Àloisy Mogarych—Aloisy is funny to the Russian ear—Aloysius in English—and Mogarych is a fake patronymic which has the meaning of a drink or bribe provided by the receiver of a good deal in business.
started to burn them—Bulgakov himself did this with a number of his manuscripts in 1930, when he was effectively banned from the theaters. Many of the details of the Master's anxiety are autobiographical. In the mid-1930s Bulgakov suffered from agoraphobia and was treated by various methods.
in the middle of January—the Master has clearly been arrested, as the detail of the coat with the buttons torn off shows (Soviet prisons of the time habitually cut off all buttons on the clothes of prisoners), as does the meaningful "knock at the door." The Master appears to have been held only three months, and was then sent to the clinic. Drafts indicate Bulgakov originally intended that the Master be gone a total of one year and two months, part of which was spent in the clinic. It would appear that Bulgakov was trying to elude censors with the three month gap, although there were cases of people being held briefly.
CHAPTER 14
"Al-Danil" wine—fittingly, this table wine comes from Yalta. fortochka—a small hinged pane found at the top of Russian double windows, opened in winter to let in a small amount of fresh air.
CHAPTER 15
foreign currency—it was a crime for a private Soviet citizen to possess foreign currency at this time without special permission. The state preferred to absorb all hard
Commentary 349
currency itself, through special stores, the Torgsins, which at this time dealt not only in hard currency, but in gold, silver, and precious stones.
a dream—this dream is apparently based in reality. One of Bulgakov's good friends was caught in a random round-up in the early 1930s meant to root out those who had hidden gold or jewels. Typically a large group would be kept in a room, given something salty to eat and then denied water or a bathroom. Very quickly confessions of hidden valuables would be coaxed out of them. Of course, arrest and imprisonment were the lot of some of the unlucky people caught up in these dragnets.
Дата добавления: 2015-09-30; просмотров: 25 | Нарушение авторских прав
| <== предыдущая лекция | | | следующая лекция ==> |