Reading Master and Margarita - 04

Chapter 4

The Chase

- A. Charumati Ramdas

We can say that Chapter 4 indicates the beginning of action in Moscow.

As soon as Bezdomnyi heard the first screams, he rushed towards the exit and saw Berlioz’s severed head rolling along the fencing of Patriarchy Park.

He was so stunned that he collapsed on a nearby bench and could not move. When the screams stopped he noticed that two women unexpectedly ran into each other near him, and one of them, sharp-nosed and bare-headed, shouted the following to the other, right next to the poet's ear:

'...Annushka, our Annushka! From Sadovaya! It's her work... She bought sunflower oil at the grocery, and went and broke the whole litre-bottle on the turnstile! Messed her skirt all up, and swore and swore!

... And he, poor man, must have slipped and - right on to the rails...'

The bells start ringing in Bezdomnyi’s mind! Annushka! Sunflower oil! The meeting! Pontius Pilate! The Professor!

Of all that the woman shouted, one word lodged itself in Ivan Nikolaevich's upset brain:

'Annushka'...

'Annushka... Annushka?' the poet muttered, looking around anxiously.

Wait a minute, wait a minute...'

The word 'Annushka' got strung together with the words 'sunflower oil', and then for some reason with 'Pontius Pilate'. The poet dismissed Pilate and began linking up the chain that started from the word `Annushka'. And this chain got very quickly linked up and led at once to the mad professor.

Ivan Bezdomnyi jumped to the conclusion that Professor knew about Berlioz’s death….maybe he himself had plotted the accident!!??

`Excuse me! But he did say the meeting wouldn't take place because Annushka had spilled the oil. And, if you please, it won't take place! What's more, he said straight out that Berlioz's head would be cut off by a woman?! Yes, yes, yes! And the driver was a woman! What is all this, eh?!'

There was not a grain of doubt left that the mysterious consultant had known beforehand the exact picture of the terrible death of Berlioz. Here two thoughts pierced the poet's brain. The first:

'He's not mad in the least, that's all nonsense!' And the second: Then didn't he set it all up himself?'

'But in what manner, may we ask?! Ah, no, this we're going to find out!' “

 He comes back to the bench where he was sitting with the Professor a little while ago and sees that the same tall, thin person in a checkered shirt was sitting near the Professor. He was wearing specs with one glass!

The ex-choirmaster was sitting in the very place where Ivan Nikolaevich had sat just recently.

Now the busybody had perched on his nose an obviously unnecessary pince-nez, in which one lens was missing altogether and the other was cracked. This made the checkered citizen even more repulsive than he had been when he showed Berlioz the way to the rails.

With a chill in his heart, Ivan approached the professor and, glancing into his face, became convinced that there were not and never had been any signs of madness in that face.

'Confess, who are you?' Ivan asked in a hollow voice.

The foreigner scowled, looked at the poet as if he were seeing him for the first time, and answered inimically:

'No understand ... no speak Russian. ..'

The gent don't understand,' the choirmaster mixed in from the bench, though no one had asked him to explain the foreigner's words.

'Don't pretend!' Ivan said threateningly, and felt cold in the pit of his stomach. 'You spoke excellent Russian just now. You're not a German and you're not a professor! You're a murderer and a spy!... Your papers!' Ivan cried fiercely.

The mysterious professor squeamishly twisted his mouth, which was twisted to begin with, then shrugged his shoulders.

'Citizen!' the loathsome choirmaster butted in again. "What're you doing bothering a foreign tourist? For that you'll incur severe punishment!'

And the suspicious professor made an arrogant face, turned, and walked away from Ivan. Ivan felt himself at a loss. Breathless, he addressed the choirmaster:

'Hey, citizen, help me to detain the criminal! It's your duty!'

The choirmaster became extraordinarily animated, jumped up and hollered:

`What criminal? Where is he? A foreign criminal?' The choirmaster's eyes sparkled gleefully.

That one? If he's a criminal, the first thing to do is shout "Help!" Or else he'll get away. Come on, together now, one, two!' -- and here the choirmaster opened his maw.

Totally at a loss, Ivan obeyed the trickster and shouted 'Help!' but the choirmaster bluffed him and did not shout anything.

Ivan's solitary, hoarse cry did not produce any good results. Two girls shied away from him, and he heard the word 'drunk'.

'Ah, so you're in with him!' Ivan cried out, waxing wroth. "What are you doing, jeering at me? Out of my way!'

Ivan dashed to the right, and so did the choirmaster; Ivan dashed to the left, and the scoundrel did the same.

`Getting under my feet on purpose?' Ivan cried, turning ferocious.

'I'll hand you over to the police!'

Ivan attempted to grab the blackguard by the sleeve, but missed and caught precisely nothing:

It was as if the choirmaster fell through the earth.

Ivan gasped, looked into the distance, and saw the hateful stranger. He was already at the exit to Patriarch's Lane; moreover, he was not alone. The more than dubious choirmaster had managed to join him. But that was still not all: the third in this company proved to be a tom-cat, who appeared out of nowhere, huge as a hog, black as soot or as a rook, and with a desperate cavalryman's whiskers. The trio set off down Patriarch's Lane, the cat walking on his hind legs.

Ivan sped after the villains and became convinced at once that it would be very difficult to catch up with them.

Let us go to the ‘chase’…..

Ivan is following the troika….the Professor, the Big, giant cat and the tall, thin man.

The trio shot down the lane in an instant and came out on Spiridonovka. No matter how Ivan quickened his pace, the distance between him and his quarry never diminished. And before the poet knew it, he emerged, after the quiet of Spiridonovka, by the Nikitsky Gate, where his situation worsened. The place was swarming with people. Besides, the gang of villains decided to apply the favourite trick of bandits here: a scattered getaway.

The choirmaster, with great dexterity, bored his way on to a bus speeding towards the Arbat Square and slipped away. Having lost one of his quarries, Ivan focused his attention on the cat and saw this strange cat go up to the footboard of an 'A' tram waiting at a stop, brazenly elbow aside a woman, who screamed, grab hold of the handrail, and even make an attempt to shove a ten-kopeck piece into the conductress's hand through the window, open on account of the stuffiness.

Ivan was so struck by the cat's behaviour that he froze motionless by the grocery store on the corner, and here he was struck for a second time, but much more strongly, by the conductress's behaviour. As soon as she saw the cat getting into the tram-car, she shouted with a malice that even made her shake:

'No cats allowed! Nobody with cats allowed! Scat! Get off, or I'll call the police!'

Pay attention to the small details…

The cat is paying money to the tram-conductor; she only says that the cats are not allowed inside the trams, but nobody…nobody, pays attention to the fact that the CAT was PAYING money to the conductor!

While following the professor Ivan somehow decides that he is in Building No 13, Flat No.47. This was one such building which earlier belonged to the noble class and is now converted into a community building. The destruction that has taken place inside the building, the dust and dirt, the common kitchen with a paper icon of the Christ and a candle…the woman bathing who mistook Ivan as her lover and she asks him to go back as her husband is expected any moment…the similar orange shaded lamps seen from ALL windows, the same music, a loud screaming voice singing a love song from Evgenyi Onegin (this loud, angry voice is depicted many times! This was a famous Russian poet of Revolution…)….you get a glimpse of the Moscow of 20’s!

Then happens an interesting thing.

Ivan comes to Moscow River and decides that the Professor is at the river. He decides to look for him in the river:

Having taken off his clothes, Ivan entrusted them to a pleasant, bearded fellow who was smoking a hand-rolled cigarette, sitting beside a torn white Tolstoy blouse and a pair of unlaced, worn boots. After waving his arms to cool off, Ivan dived swallow-fashion into the water.

It took his breath away, so cold the water was, and the thought even flashed in him that he might not manage to come up to the surface. However, he did manage to come up, and, puffing and snorting, his eyes rounded in terror, Ivan Nikolaevich began swimming through the black, oil-smelling water among the broken zigzags of street lights on the bank.

When the wet Ivan came dancing back up the steps to the place where the bearded fellow was guarding his clothes, it became clear that not only the latter, but also the former - that is, the bearded fellow himself - had been stolen. In the exact spot where the pile of clothes had been, a pair of striped drawers, the torn Tolstoy blouse, the candle, the icon and a box of matches had been left. After threatening someone in the distance with his fist in powerless anger, Ivan put on what was left for him.

Here two considerations began to trouble him: first that his Massolit identification card, which he never parted with, was gone, and, second, whether he could manage to get through Moscow unhindered looking the way he did now? In striped drawers, after all ... True, it was nobody's business, but still there might be some hitch or delay.

Ivan tore off the buttons where the drawers fastened at the ankle, figuring that this way they might pass for summer trousers, gathered up the icon, the candle and the matches, and started off, saying to himself:

'To Griboedov's! Beyond all doubt, he's there.'

Please note that the water in the river was very cold, there was oil spilled on the water from the steamers etc. that were sailing on the river, Ivan’s clothes are stolen, only the candle and the paper icon of the Christ which he had lifted from the building No 13 was left on the bank and also the clothes of the peasant whom Ivan had entrusted his clothes. Ivan had no choice but to put on the short trousers and a loose shirt, he pinned up the icon on his shirt and held the candle in one hand and starts for Griboyedov House.

Can we say that this was purification of Ivan in the water mixed with oil; he adopts the Icon, is he baptized? Some people might think on these lines, but we shall notice that a gradual change takes place in Ivan’s outlook, his thinking process. He comes to know many things which earlier seemed insignificant to him.

The next chapter reveals many things of the literary life of Moscow.

Reading Master and Margarita - 03

Chapter 3

The Seventh Proof-

- A. Charumati Ramdas

We have seen in Chapter 2 that the foreigner narrates the episode of Yeshua-Ha-Nostri being sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate. And by the time the convicts are taken to the Bald Mountain it was already ten o’clock.

Chapter 2 has taken place in Yerushalem.

Chapter 3 begins with the same sentence which has closed Chapter 2. By saying again that it was about 10 o’clock in the morning Bulgakov brings the readers back to the time and space where Berlioz and Bezdomnyi were discussing about Christ.

By this time it is already evening and there is Moon in the sky. Berlioz does not want to irritate this ‘insane’ German, but still says

'Your story is extremely interesting, Professor, though it does not coincide at all with the Gospel stories.'

'Good heavens,' the professor responded, smiling condescendingly, 'you of all people should know that precisely nothing of what is written in the Gospels ever actually took place, and if we start referring to the Gospels as a historical source...' he smiled once more, and Berlioz stopped short, because this was literally the same thing he had been saying to Bezdomnyi as they walked down Bronnaya towards the Patriarch's Ponds.

'That's so,' Berlioz replied, 'but I'm afraid no one can confirm that what you've just told us actually took place either.'

'Oh, yes! That there is one who can!' the professor, beginning to speak in broken language, said with great assurance, and with unexpected mysteriousness he motioned the two friends to move closer.

Please note this peculiarity of Bulgakov’s style: He goes on describing an event with great details and abruptly says that either he does not know about it or it didn’t happen. We shall observe it in the following chapters as well.

Berlioz asks the Professor where he is staying in Moscow, and the professor answers that he plans to stay in Berlioz’s flat. And really does the professor occupy Berlioz’s flat for full three days!

Berlioz asks Bezdomnyi to guard the Foreigner and gets up to make a phone call:

 'You sit here for a little minute with comrade Homeless, and I'll just run to the corner to make a phone call, and then we'll take you wherever you like. You don't know the city...'

Berlioz's plan must be acknowledged as correct: he had to run to the nearest public telephone and inform the foreigners' bureau, thus and so, there's some consultant from abroad sitting at the Patriarch's Ponds in an obviously abnormal state. So it was necessary to take measures, lest some unpleasant nonsense result.

‘To make a call? Well, then make your call,' the sick man agreed sadly, and suddenly begged passionately: `But I implore you, before you go, at least believe that the devil exists! I no longer ask you for anything more.

And while Berlioz is proceeding towards the exit gate:

…the professor called out, cupping his hands like a megaphone:

`Would you like me to have a telegram sent at once to your uncle in Kiev?'

The strange transparent man whom Berlioz had earlier seen in the park reappears again:

Here, just at the exit to Bronnaya, there rose from a bench to meet the editor exactly the same citizen who in the sunlight earlier had formed himself out of the thick swelter. Only now he was no longer made of air, but ordinary, fleshly, and Berlioz clearly distinguished in the beginning twilight that he had a little moustache like chicken feathers, tiny eyes, ironic and half drunk, and checkered trousers pulled up so high that his dirty white socks showed.

Mikhail Alexandrovich drew back, but reassured himself by reflecting that it was a stupid coincidence and that generally there was no time to think about it now.

'Looking for the turnstile, citizen?' the checkered type inquired in a cracked tenor. This way, please! Straight on and you'll get where you're going. How about a little pint pot for my information... to set up an ex-choirmaster!...' Mugging, the specimen swept his jockey's cap from his head.

Thus we get hint to two events:

The place where the foreigner is going to stay;

Berlioz has an uncle in Kiev.

Berlioz slips over the oil spilled by Annushka and falls on the rails, and is immediately crushed by a tramcar which was being driven by a woman.

Thus Professor’s prediction comes true: the meeting of MASSOLIT that Berlioz was going to preside over can’t take place, Berlioz’s head is severed, and a woman had done it (the tram car driver was a woman!). And next moment people who had assembled there saw Berlioz’s head rolling along the fencing of the Patriarchy Ponds.

WE can say that this chapter serves as prelude to the forthcoming events, it establishes professor as fortune teller, it also emphasizes that man has no control over his future; he doesn’t even know what is going to happen to him the next moment.

Reading Master and Margarita - 02

Chapter 2

Pontius Pilate

- A. Charumati Ramdas

In chapter 1 we saw that Ivan Bezdomnyi and Berlioz were discussing in the Patriarchy Ponds Park about the existence of Christ. Berlioz explains to Bezdomnyi that He never existed. Suddenly they come across a stranger who says that he is an expert on black magic. This Professor emphasizes that Christ existed and no proof is needed for this. He takes Bezdomnyi and Berlioz to the ancient Jerusalem where The Christ is being questioned by procurator of Rome Pontius Pilate.

Please pay attention to the last sentence of chapter 1. It is the same as the first sentence of chapter 2. Bulgakov uses this device to realize shift of time and space...from Moscow to Jerusalem; from Modern times to the ancient times.

You will definitely, carefully read the dialogues between Yeshua and Pontius Pilate. Just pay attention to the condition of Pontius Pilate in the beginning of chapter.

The Procurator is suffering from Migraine . Why? Because of scent of roses. Why roses? Why migraine? So that only one half of his head suffers, he does not feel like thinking, he is going to use his mind to as little an extent as possible.

Pay attention to Mark Krysoboi.

Pay attention to the metaphor of Sun as well.

We have seen that Pontius Pilate is suffering from headache. The reason for this headache is the smell coming from red roses.

You can observe that in Master & Margarita Bulgakov does not pay any attention to the HEAD - the thinking process- and many times you will come across such expressions as ' Why Head? Head is not at all needed here!'

Even Mayakovsky in his play 'Bed bug' depicts a scene where the fish is being sold in the market. Two shopkeepers are selling the same fish at different rates. The inquiry reveals that the cheaper fish is longer too. The explanation given by the shopkeeper is:

Cut the head...why do you need the head?

That means any type of mental activity was not welcome in those days in the Soviet Union. They wanted just numbers, just robots?

Another person in chapter 2 who attracts us is Mark Krisoboi. In English it is translated as Ratslayer.

Right, there was a movement of cleaning the rats from the fields...i.e. harmful elements from the society.

Let us have a look at the other two characters who figure in Chapter 2. We have seen that Mark Krysoboi is the security in charge. Just see how he is depicted:

Krysoboi was a well built, strong man. His face was deformed. As soon as he appeared in the balcony, it seemed that it was dark. He was taller than every soldier in his unit and his shoulders were so wide that they had covered the Sun which was not very high at that time.

In this chapter we see the Sun gradually getting stronger. The Sun is merciless in subsequent chapters as well. But Krysoboi was more powerful than the Sun in chapter 2, as Sun was not very high! This implies that the security organs were very powerful and they had eclipsed even the powerful persons represented by the Sun...Slowly we shall come to know what Mikhail Bulgakov is hinting at.

Come to Yeshua. His full name is given as Yeshua-Ha-Nostri. He is brought before the Procurator in Yerushalam. The setting seems to suggest that this was the trial of Jesus....but...that is what Bulgakov is! He drops hints here and there to make us realize that it is not really so.

Pay attention to Yeshua...his age as mentioned by Bulgakov, his dress, and the questions put by Pontius Pilate and answers given by Yeshua. Try to see how different they are from the real process as mentioned in the Holy Bible.

‘Just then the armed soldiers brought a young man of about 27 years. He was in a tattered blue long gown, a white kerchief on his head…’

So, the age of Yeshua Ha-Nostri is given as 27 years….The Holy Bible mentions the same as 33 years….

Yeshua is wearing a blue dress, according to the Holy Bible, it was black….He says that he does not remember his parents, says that they were Syrians…this is again deviation from the Holy Bible.

Ha-Nostri is accused of inciting people to destroy the temple in Yerushalem…he says that he did not incite any one for this and had said that the temple of old beliefs will come down and in its place a new temple of truth will come up.

This was going against the local ideological/religious system which was headed by Kaif.

Please pay attention to the relationship between Pontius Pilate and Kaif…

They hate each other. Kaif had complained to the Caesar against Pilate. Chapter 2 suggests that Pilate in fact wanted to save Yeshua. He wanted to take him away from Yerushalam and keep with him. But Kaif insisted that he wants Yeshua to be hanged.

After pronouncing death sentence to Yeshua, he rubs his hands as if he is washing them. The same action will be repeated in a letter chapter as well.

We can now see that there are four main characters in this chapter:

Pontius Pilate, who represents The Caesar in Yerushalem;

Yeshua, who is accused of inciting the people to destroy the temple of Yerushalem;

Mark Krysoboi, the Chief of security, shown to be taller than the tallest of soldiers;

Kaif, the Religious Head.

But there are two more characters, a sweeping reference to whom is found in the chapter:

The Caesar and The man in hood, whom Pilate meets in the dark room just for a few seconds.

The Caesar is not present in Yerushalem, but his presence is always felt there. That is why when the second charge is leveled against Yeshua – the charge of showing disrespect to Him, Pilate understands that he won’t be able to save Ha-Nostri from imminent death. He tries to send signals to Yeshua that he rejects this allegation, but Yeshua confesses that he had told people about the rule of Kings:

 Any government is just an instrument to torture people…and a time will come when there will be no rulers left in the world and the Man will enter the kingdom of truth and justice.

That was the end of it!

Pilate declares Yeshua guilty and confirms death sentence upon him by the Lower court, and he rubs his hands as if he is washing them.

While Pilate is scared of the Caesar, Kaif does not leave an opportunity to complain against him to the Caesar. Pilate, the Administrative Head and Kaif, the ideological/political head hate each other. But they are also careful lest no one overhears them. Kaif wants Yeshua to die, while Pilate wants to save him, but finds that he cannot do so.

The Holy Bible does not mention that Pilate developed some soft feelings for Yeshua.

Please pay attention to the depiction of the Caesar. The ulcerous growth on his forehead…

We shall think about these details when we discuss chapters 16, 25 and 26 dealing with the theme of Pilate-Yeshua.

Reading Master and Margarita - 01

Chapter I

 Never Talk with Strangers

- A. Charumati Ramdas

Friends,

Let us start discussion on the novel ‘Master and Margarita’ in all seriousness.

We shall go chapter wise and, of course, slowly.

I am sure you have gone through Chapter 1 (in any language!).

The action takes place in Moscow, in the Park Patriarshi Prudy. The time is….a warm evening of May. Which day of the week? That becomes clear in later chapters.

Two persons appear in the park. Here’s how they are described:

One of them, approximately forty years old, dressed in a grey summer suit, was short, dark-haired, plump, bald, and carried his respectable fedora hat in his hand. His neatly shaven face was adorned with black horn-rimmed glasses of a supernatural size.

The other, a broad-shouldered young man with tousled reddish hair, his checkered cap cocked back on his head, was wearing a cowboy shirt, wrinkled white trousers and black sneakers.

The first was none other than Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, editor of a fat literary journal and chairman of the board of one of the major Moscow literary associations, called Massolit , and his young companion was the poet Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrev, who wrote under the pseudonym of Bezdomnyi (Homeless).

 They were seen discussing whether The Christ existed or not…sorry, it was not discussion but a sort of sermon. Berlioz, who was an influential editor of a fat journal, was asking the young poet Bezdomnyi to write a poem suggesting that Christ never existed.

Pay attention to the name of the poet. His true name was Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, and Bezdomnyi was used by him as Pseudonym.

Interesting!

Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov, who was too worried about the housing problem in Moscow at that time, (20’s of the last century…he himself had suffered a lot before getting a place to live in a community flat!)

Berlioz was editor of a journal and being editor of a fat journal makes you an influential person. He was also President of a literary organization…MASSOLIT. The time, 20’s of XX century, is known as the Silver Age of Russian Literature. Especially in 20’s there was a big number of literary groups – formalist and non- formalist; socialistically oriented literature was emerging. There was a love for abbreviations, specially known for this were PROLETKULT, LEF, RAPP etc MASSOLIT could be deciphered as Moscow Association of Literature, it was of course proletarian in nature and enjoyed patronage from the government.

The discussion shows that Berlioz was a well-read person. He was trying to propagate the government line of thinking that there is no GOD.

Then appears a third, mysterious person:

Afterwards, when, frankly speaking, it was already too late, various institutions presented reports describing this man. A comparison of them cannot but cause amazement.

Thus, the first of them said that the man was short, had gold teeth, and limped on his right leg. The second, that the man was enormously tall, had platinum crowns, and limped on his left leg. The third laconically averred that the man had no distinguishing marks. It must be acknowledged that none of these reports is of any value.

First of all, the man described did not limp on any leg, and was neither short nor enormous, but simply tall. As for his teeth, he had platinum crowns on the left side and gold on the right. He was wearing an expensive grey suit and imported shoes of a matching colour. His grey beret was cocked rakishly over one ear; under his arm he carried a stick with a black knob shaped like a poodle's head. He looked to be a little over forty. Mouth somehow twisted. Clean-shaven. Dark-haired. Right eye black, left - for some reason - green. Dark eyebrows, but one higher than

the other. In short, a foreigner.

Pay attention to his appearance. He says he was a consultant and was invited by the government to explain some archaic documents on black magic. From the first description itself it is clear that the stranger is a mysterious man.

The stranger gets involved in this discussion.

We observe a few things in their conversation:

 whether any one is listening to us?

We should not go closer to foreigners;

we are all non believers and we can say this openly.

 This throws light on the atmosphere of suspicion that was prevailing in the country. Bulgakov started writing this novel in 1928…things in Soviet Union were already precipitating towards a certain cult by this time.

And when the mysterious Professor declares that Berlioz is going to be killed by a woman…he mutters something about the position of planets. All those positions really indicate misfortune, death…

He looked Berlioz up and down as if he were going to make him a suit, muttered through his teeth something like: 'One, two ... Mercury in the second house ... moon gone ... six - disaster... evening - seven...' then announced loudly and joyfully:

'Your head will be cut off!'

One must appreciate that Bulgakov had done a lot of research before writing the novel. Nothing, nothing mentioned therein is baseless.

Please think about these points and we shall get back with something more about the same chapter!

* quotations are from Master and Margarita translated by Richard Pevear and Larisaa Volkhonskaya, 1997.