The Master and Margarita

I'm listening...

to what?

If you read the Vintage edition, it has explanations for things from each chapter at the back of the book.

To a good argument for it being literally Faust

well i'm glad it was a good argument. i get worried about not giving good arguments, but you definitely confirmed my abilities.

I'm listening… is more of an expression meant to indicate "I am willing to listen to" rather than "at the moment I am listening to".

you just said "i'm listening to a good argument for it being literally faust", if your two posts are read one after the other.

Eng first language? I assumed you already knew your 'to' was meant to be a 'for' and that you were simply being pedantic. Is this one of those, I was only pretending to be retarded posts? Or are you going to eventually get to explaining why it is Master and Margarita is Faust?

>needing explanations for things in a chapter

lol why even read? just go to sparknoats

nope, i don't need to explain it to you.
and you didn't say "for", you said "to". maybe english is your second language and you're just projecting.

Well actually, you're the one that said 'to' whereas the proper response would have been 'for'. Have you actually read Faust part 2? I am seriously doubting it.

i read the walter kaufman's dual language translation, i believe it contained the second part of faust. if not, i guess i haven't. seems like it was in there though.

anyway, you could have avoided the confusion by saying "for" in the post replying to mine, but you chose to type "to" as well. the blame is not upon my shoulders, friend.

All right, I'll explain the first Pilate chapter's symbolism, and you can go from there.
The Master and Margarita tells of events that occur in Moscow during four days in May- starting Wednesday evening and ending on Saturday night. The novel is divided into two parts, made up of thirty-two chapters and an epilogue. Four of these chapters tell the story of Pontius Pilate's meeting with and executing of Yeshua-Ha-Nostri (Jesus). The Pilate chapters are evenly spaced throughout the book, and flow smoothly into each other, in spite of the various sources.
The first part (Chapter 2, Pontius Pilate) is told by Woland in conversation. The second (Chapter 16, The Execution) is dreamed by Nikanor Ivanovich. The third (Chapter 25, How The Procurator Tried to Save Judas of Karioth) is read by Margarita from the Master's novel, as is the fourth (Chapter 26, The Burial). Let's just concern iourselves with the first of these chapters.With many writers, an analysis this careful and allegorical in nature might seem pointless. The Pilate chapters, however, are obviously so carefully researched and constructed, and the symbolic details so fitting, and enhancing of the scenes, that they deserve special notice.

The events of this novel, both in Moscow and Jerusalem, take place in the latter part of a week early in May, during a full moon. It is therefore likely that this is Orthodox Holy Week, which can fall in May (Gregorian calendar) if Easter is very late in the Julian calendar (which the Russian Orthodox Church still follows). This would mean that Margarita reads about the Crucifixion on its anniversary.

At the opening of the Pilate story, Yeshua Hah Nostri ( Yeshua is a phonetic spelling of the Arabic spelling of Jesus' name, YHVH, and 'Ha-Nostri' means 'of Nazareth) is brought before Pontius Pilate, the fifth Procurator of Judaea, on charges of inciting rebellion against the temple of Jerusalem.
The Roman military rule of Jerusalem is uneasy, and only a show of willingness to observe and protect the religious customs of the Jewish people keeps the peace. The Jewish priests have sent Yeshua to Pilate to confirm his guilt. It seems likely that the priests think they are striking a blow at Pilate by forcing him to confirm and order this wanderer's execution. They believe that the Romans have sent Yeshua among them to incite rioting so that the Jews can be put down by the soldiers- a legitimate show of force.

Pilate, of course, could not care less whether the authority of the Jewish temple is being challenged (the content of the first manuscript of charges against Yeshua), but the second is a challenge to all power (which, by extension, speaks of the Emperor and Empire of Rome as a transient structure without real authority). This Pilate cannot let pass, as the priests knew when they sent the prisoner to him.
Pilate wears a cloak, white on the outside but lined with red. The white is the exterior appearance of fair, unprejudiced justice which the Procurator is supposed to dispense. The red lining is the blood on his hands, the political and self-serving motives underlying every decision. The terrible pain in the left side of Pilate's head is "a sign of the presence of a diabolic spirit"(Natov 105), which Yeshua seems to exorcise.
In this interview appear the only hints at the supernatural powers of Yeshua, aside from the storm breaking over his execution and Matthew's blasphemy. Yeshua predicts, perhaps causes, Pilate's relief from his headache, fears for Judas' safety, and- in a wonderfully ironic statement- says he fears the confusion caused by Matthew's inaccurate recording may last for some time.

Yeshua charms and impresses Pilate. He is, if not clairvoyant, highly perceptive and empathic, a physician and a philosopher. His humanity is emphasised; Yeshua is afraid of pain, afraid of death, and seems more naive then determined to martyr himself.
Pilate is considering freeing him, and a swallow flies near ( a symbol of many relevant things, including the incarnation of Christ, resurrection, a wandering spirit, and prayer ). It brushes its wing tips over a statue's face- a statue that may be of Pilate, or the Emperor Tiberius. Then the swallow flies away, and Yeshua's face turns into the Emperor's- reminding Pilate of the possibility of his being charged with high treason if he fails to execute this man. Another fleeting image is Pilate's vision of the Emperor's face crowned with "a spiked golden diadem"- an ironic contrast to Christ's crown of thorns.
The constant references to flowers is another contrast between the beauty of the blossoms and the ugliness of what is happening, and the choice of flowers emphasises this contrast through symbolism. The first scent mentioned is the oppressive odour of roses, a strong Christian symbol of the beauty of God. The trees mentioned are cypress, the tree of death, and palms, the symbol of "Christ's victory over death"(Olderr 99). This subtle foreshadowing continues throughout, with the cooing of doves as Yeshua is whipped, a symbol of the Holy Spirit's presence.

In the dialogue, it is notable that Christ met Matthew by a fig orchard, which is both a symbol of sex (Matthew's weakness), and a foreshadowing of his death. Note that Yeshua met Matthew "where the road skirts a fig orchard" (Bulgakov 31), the implication being that Yeshua never left the road himself to enter this place of temptation.
The dog which Pilate wishes for, his only comfort, is a symbol of impurity and the Devil- the only companion he has. There is even a possibility here that Banga the dog is Woland (there are many precedents for the Devil appearing as a dog). That the thunderstorm of Christ's death and ascension are the only things that frighten the dog may be supportive of this theory.

In the Procurator's conversation he learns that Judas lit candles before Yeshua's arrest. This detail proves to Pilate that Judas was in the pay of the temple, because Jewish law required an arrest to be lit so that the identity of the person arrested was beyond question.
After Yeshua is taken away, Pilate calls for Joseph Caiphas, the high priest of Judaea and president of the Sanhedrin. These two would dearly love to see the other die, and find many subtle ways to insult, annoy, and threaten each other.
Pilate begins by inviting the priest out onto the balcony- which he knows perfectly well Caiphas cannot do without breaking his Passover vow of not touching an pagan space. If Caiphas had done so, he would have been unable to return to the temple for the remainder of the feast.
The Procurator discusses the choice of prisoner to be freed- as the freeing of one man is customary on the eve of Passover, and pretends to be surprised that the Sanhedrin would rather see Bar-Abba, another prisoner, freed than the obviously gentle Yeshua. Bar-Abba is an outspoken rebel who killed a guard while resisting arrest, so the priest's choice is ridiculous on the face of it. But Caiphas is convinced that Yeshua was working for Pilate, and so by forcing his execution he hopes to teach the Procurator a lesson.
This clash of wills finally explodes into honest hatred and open threats. Each man threatens to inform the Emperor of the other's 'treasonous' activities. Pilate refers to Caiphas having been responsible for him having to "remove the shields with the imperial cipher from the walls"(Bulgakov 47). The hanging of these shields in the first place, which violated the Jewish law against graven images (The Fourth Commandment), was probably an intentional offence ordered by Pilate. The Jewish leaders complained to the Emperor, who ordered Pilate to remove them. This is but one example of the long-standing feud between these men.

Yeshua is an innocent pawn in the power struggle between the Jewish Church and the Procurator of Judaea. A nice detail here is Pilate's ripping off of his cloak buckle, as if trying to rid himself of his cloak of duality, just before his sudden honest explosion at the priest. However, after he regains his self-control, the buckle is handed back to him by an assistant, and he clenches it in his hand through his following public speech.
The priest wins this particular battle, and Pilate goes down to the town square to announce the identities of the condemned and who will be freed. Before this, he has a short, discreet meeting with a hooded man whom we may infer (from events later on) is Arthanius, chief of Pilate's secret service.
Pilate is blinded by the sun during his speech, unable to see either the prisoners or the crowd. He sees nothing, hears nothing but fire: "green fire piercing his eyelids"(Bulgakov 50), "the sun detonated above him and drowned his ears in fire". Pilate does not want to see, and keeps his eyes closed and down until he is sure he will not be able to see the prisoners- so he will not have to meet Yeshua's eyes. The Procurator's guilt overwhelms him, and he hates both the city and himself.
The last line of the chapter, "It was about ten o'clock in the morning."(Bulgakov 53) is jarring- with all that has happened, surely it should be at least early afternoon? One implied explanation for the slow passing of time is that Pilate's interview with Yeshua was mystical, outside of time in some manner- (or that this detail evaded Bulgakov's editing, through all eight versions)
The traditional Gospel accounts of this morning have been largely rewritten, and a very conscious effort made by the author to remove powerful words and symbols from this account- returning it to history from theology. The words "cross" "Crucifixion" "Jesus", etc., are never used. Many familiar details appear in different ways, suggesting their origin in inaccurate accounts like that of Matthew the Levite, and other apocrypha.

Pilate's recurring image of a goblet filled with dark liquid which he thinks of as poison that will bring him peace refers not only to a drink of blood and wine from later in the novel, but is an echo of the Holy Grail, filled with wine from the Last Supper and than blood caught from Christ's wounds on the cross. Pilate has already heard the story (false, according to Yeshua) that Yeshua entered Jerusalem through the Susim Gate mounted on a donkey, greeted as a prophet by the people. When Yeshua replies that only Matthew was with him, it seems obvious where the exaggeration began.

The flow of water from a nearby fountain that the Procurator wishes to soothe himself with is a purifier, a symbol of baptism, birth, and regeneration. It is important that Pilate never succumbs to this desire, even in the oppressive heat. Instead we see him "wiping his hands as though washing them"(Bulgakov 41)- as close as we ever get to the traditional image of Pilate washing his hands. Perhaps this is a self-acknowledgement of his unworthiness for such purity.
Pilate's flash of thought just after the priest says for the third time (making it binding and irrevocable) that Yeshua shall not be released, "Immortality...immortality has come"(Bulgakov 45) is inexplicable to him, as is his feeling that his last hope for healing is gone. Reading with the knowledge of the legend as well as the reality as Woland tells it gives us a constant intricate weaving between the two sources.
After Yeshua is taken away, Pilate sees the roof of the temple of Jerusalem as a golden dragon's scale (the dragon is a common emblem of the Devil in Christianity). The Priest and Procurator meet between two white marble lions, representing the clash of their respective powers. As the roses and cypresses disappear from Pilates' sight after Yeshua's fate is sealed, so also does a pomegranate tree, an ancient symbol of immortality, and more recently, of Christ. The 'suffocating purple mass' that replaces all these images is the colour of royalty, and the colour of the Roman Emperor.

The daunting intricacy of Bulgakov's novel-within-a-novel is meant to speak to all levels of reader, and it is the part of the novel where Bulgakov's theme is stated most clearly. To an average reader, many of these symbols will be lost, or create only vague impressions (which, after all, is the root of symbolism anyway- any association must start on a basic level to ring true). To a careful reader, or researcher, this chapter and its brothers are near-invulnerable to historical critiquing. Everything is extremely realistic, full of details that solidify the reader's image of what the last day of Jesus' life might actually have been like, without sacrificing the symbolic power of the event. In the meeting between Pilate and Yeshua, it is not necessary to believe in Yeshua's divinity to realise that we are witnessing a clash between two types of power and ideals- the material and spiritual. Even though Pilate's material power here can overcome Yeshua's spiritual, we know that the final triumph will be Yeshua's ideals, on another plane (and Pilate's absolving at the novel's end is proof of this).

All of Pilate's actions are undertaken for the wrong reasons: he allows Yeshua to die rather than risk his own life, and then attempts to atone by ordering Judas' murder- after Yeshua had clearly expressed forgiveness to him. Pilate betrays his sense of justice, and after making subtle (and completely unsuccessful) attempts to convince Yeshua to withdraw his subversive statements, bows to the pressure of the High Priest. Pilate's actions prove Yeshua's statement that "all power is a form of violence exercised over people". Whether Yeshua is immortal or not is irrelevant. The fact is that he gains immortality through his actions and through the writings (inaccurate or not) of Matthew. He is an ordinary man who is willing to suffer and die for his beliefs. His reply to Pilate's questioning, and to the veiled invitation to deny having made subversive statements is simply "telling the truth is easy and pleasant".

The Master, a figure who appears halfway through The Master and Margarita is partly to be associated with Christ, partly with Matthew, but, in a very important way with Pilate. Both men deny their true ideals: the Master exiles himself from his beloved, and looses faith in his masterpiece, and Pilate allows Yeshua to die for him. The tragedy in both cases is that of a man sensitive enough to recognise a higher truth, but who loses courage and fails to defend this truth, denies its importance. Yeshua is an example to both; a man who knew exactly what had to be done, and never considered lying to himself or others. This truth, and this dichotomy, is contained in the chapter "Pontius Pilate" so completely that the rest of the novel The Master and Margarita merely expands all levels of the theme; it is all here waiting to be understood.
There you go: I hope that's helpful.

>with references
I wish people put this much effort into non-fiction

Oh, right. Sorry: M&M page numbers are from my old Glenny translation:
>Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita. Great Britain: Harvill, 1988.

Other sources I used are:

>Wright, Colin A. Mikhail Bulgakov: Life and Interpretations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978. 258-273.

>Proffer, Ellenda. Bulgakov: Life and Work. Michigan: Ardis, 1984. 525-566.

>Natov, Nadine. Mikhail Bulgakov. Boston: G.K. Hall & Company, 1985. 92-108.

>Milne, Lesley. Mikhail Bulgakov: A Critical Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 228-257.

>Curtis, J.A.E. Bulgakov's Last Decade: The Writer as Hero. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. 129-187.

>Milne, Lesley. The Master and Margarita- A Comedy of Victory. Birmingham: Birmingham Slavonic Monographs, 1977.

>Barratt, Andrew. Between Two Worlds: A Critical Introduction to The Master and Margarita. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.

>Olderr, Steven. Symbolism: A Comprehensive Dictionary. London: McFarland & Company, 1986.

>The Holy Bible (King James Version). Philadelphia: The National Bible Press, 1972.

As you might guess, it's a short paper I wrote a very long time ago.

kaufmann only contains the last act of faust 2 + like a couple of scenes before.

>non-fiction

enjoy being a brainlet

>using the glenny translation

literally everything you've written is invalidated. try again.

No, I'm good. Feel free to post your own analysis if you like.

Totally blew my mind user. Nice work. Thanks so much for this.

Cool, thanks man