Chapter 15
Nikanor Ivanovich's Dream
On
Thursday evening, when Nikanor Ivanovich was arrested for hiding foreign
currency in his apartment, he finally landed up in Stravinsky’s clinic.
But he was not brought here
directly. He was first taken to some other place. Bulgakov does not mention
the name of this place but it is understood that it was the office of secret service.
They ask him questions: first in a loving manner and then in angry tone.
Suddenly Nikanor Ivanovich spots
Koroviev in a corner of this office, who was mocking at him from behind an Amirah.
Nikanor Ivanovich’s mental condition
deteriorates to such an extent that he had to be taken to Stravinsky’s clinic.
Nikanor Ivanovich was given a
sedative and in his sleep he sees a dream…a trial was going on in a
theatre…people were giving foreign currency which they had hoarded somewhere:
'Well,
Nikanor Ivanovich, set us a good example, sir,' the young artiste said
soulfully, 'turn over your currency.'
Silence
ensued. Nikanor Ivanovich took a deep breath and quietly began to speak:
'I swear to
God that I...'
But before he
had time to get the words out, the whole house burst into shouts of
indignation.
Nikanor
Ivanovich got confused and fell silent.
'As far as I
understand you,' said the programme announcer, 'you wanted to swear to God that
you haven't got any currency?', and he gazed sympathetically at Nikanor
Ivanovich.
'Exactly
right, I haven't,' replied Nikanor Ivanovich.
'Right,'
responded the artiste, 'and... excuse the indiscretion, where did the four
hundred dollars that were found in the privy of the apartment of which you and
your wife are the sole inhabitants come from?'
'Magic!'
someone in the dark house said with obvious irony.
'Exactly
right - magic,' Nikanor Ivanovich timidly replied, vaguely addressing either
the artiste or the dark house, and he explained:
'Unclean
powers, the checkered interpreter stuck me with them.'
And again the
house raised an indignant roar. When silence came, the artiste said:
'See what La
Fontaine fables I have to listen to! Stuck him with four hundred dollars! Now,
all of you here are currency dealers, so I address you as experts: is that
conceivable?'
We're not
currency dealers,' various offended voices came from the theatre, 'but, no,
it's not conceivable!'
'I'm entirely
of the same mind,' the artiste said firmly, `and let me ask you: what is it
that one can be stuck with?'
'A baby!'
someone cried from the house.
`Absolutely
correct,' the program announcer confirmed, 'a baby, an anonymous letter, a
tract, an infernal machine, anything else, but no one will stick you with four
hundred dollars, for such idiots don't exist in nature.' And turning to Nikanor
Ivanovich, the artiste added reproachfully and sorrowfully:
`You've upset
me, Nikanor Ivanovich, and I was counting on you. So, our number didn't come
off.'
Whistles came
from the house, addressed to Nikanor Ivanovich.
'He's a
currency dealer,' they shouted from the house, 'and we innocent ones have to
suffer for the likes of him!'
`Don't scold
him,' the master of ceremonies said softly, 'he'll repent.' And turning to
Nikanor Ivanovich, his blue eyes filled with tears, he added: 'Well, Nikanor
Ivanovich, you may go to your place.'
After that
the artiste rang the bell and announced loudly:
'Intermission,
you blackguards!'
The shaken
Nikanor Ivanovich, who unexpectedly for himself had become a participant in
some sort of theatre program, again found himself in his place on the floor.
Here he dreamed that the house was plunged in total darkness, and fiery red
words leaped out on the walls:
Turn over
your currency!'
Here, we should notice a few things
about this chapter:
·
The inquiry officers use affectionate as well as
terrorizing means of extracting information from under trials;
·
The interrogations would often take place in open theatres
and people would invariably confess to the crimes (this was the practice in
Stalin’s time);
·
Bulgakov emphasizes the importance of eyes, saying that
eyes are mirror of the soul, no matter how hard core the criminal is, the
moment a question is put to him, his eyes give some sort of indication of the
turmoil that is taking place in his heart, and then he is caught;
·
Bulgakov points towards the craze for foreign currency,
the tendency for hoarding and stresses that the foreign currency is going to be
of no use to them hence it is better to surrender it to the authorities.
Nikanor Ivanovich, though had not
accepted any foreign currency but he had taken bribe, he makes sure that there
are no witnesses and then he hides this amount in the ventilator of his lavatory.
There was a general tendency towards earning easy money, but they were also
scared of witnesses.
The final paragraph of the chapter
is very beautiful. It says that Nikanor Ivanovich sees a dream in the early
hours of Friday that the Sun was going down behind the bald mountain and double
rows of the armed forces had surrounded this mountain:
After the
medicine, which suffused his whole body, calm came like a wave and covered him.
His body grew lighter, his head basked in the warm wind of reverie. He fell
asleep, and the last waking thing he heard was the pre-dawn chirping of birds
in the woods. But they soon fell silent, and he began dreaming that the sun was
already going down over Bald Mountain, and the mountain was cordoned off by a
double cordon ...
A smooth transition from the modern
times to the ancient times….the reader is taken back to Yerushalem…
कोई टिप्पणी नहीं:
एक टिप्पणी भेजें
टिप्पणी: केवल इस ब्लॉग का सदस्य टिप्पणी भेज सकता है.