The central problem of the novel The Master and Margarita. Philosophical issues of the novel The Master and Margarita. The Master and Margarita problems

A difficult fate befell the works of A. During the author's lifetime, only the first part of his novel was published

“The White Guard”, a book of fantastic and satirical prose, a series of stories “Notes of a Young Enemy” and numerous newspaper feuilletons. Only in the sixties did widespread

what fame and, alas, posthumous glory. Mikhail Afanasyevich was born in Kiev on Vozdvizhenskaya Street in May 1891. His father was a teacher at the Theological Academy, and his mother worked as a teacher in her youth. The house on Andreevsky Spusk, the atmosphere of family warmth, intelligence and education remained forever in the writer’s mind.

After graduating from the First Kyiv Gymnasium, he entered the medical faculty of the university. Like other figures of Russian culture who came from a mixed class environment and received an excellent education, Mikhail had clear ideas about the honor of a Russian intellectual, which he never changed.

We can safely say that the final work, which absorbed all the ideas and thoughts of the writer sounded in earlier works, was the novel “The Master and Margarita?” It is not surprising that this novel is polyphonic, rich in complex philosophical and moral problems, and covers a wide range of topics. Many critical articles have been written about The Master and Margarita, and the novel has been studied by literary scholars from around the world. The novel contains several layers of meaning; it is unusually deep and complex.

Let us try to briefly characterize the problems of the work and its connections with the main characters of the novel. The deepest philosophical problem - the problem of the relationship between power and personality, power and the artist - is reflected in several storylines. The novel contains an atmosphere of fear and political persecution of the 1930s, which the author himself faced. Most of all, the theme of oppression, persecution of an extraordinary, talented person by the state is present in the fate of the Master. It is not for nothing that this image is largely autobiographical. However, the theme of power, its deep impact on the psychology and soul of a person, is also manifested in the story of Yeshua and Pilate.

The originality of the composition of the novel lies in the fact that a story based on the Gospel plot is woven into the plot fabric of the narrative about the fate of the Moscow inhabitants - the story of Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate. A subtle psychologism is revealed here. Pilate is the bearer of power. This determines the duality of the hero, his spiritual drama. The power vested in the procurator conflicts with the impulse of his soul, which is not devoid of a sense of justice, good and evil. Yeshua, who wholeheartedly believes in the bright beginning in man, cannot understand and accept the actions of power, its blind despotism. Faced with deaf power, the poor philosopher dies. However, Yeshua instilled doubt and repentance into Pilate’s soul, which tormented the procurator for many centuries. Thus, the idea of ​​power is connected in the novel with the problem of mercy and forgiveness.

To understand these issues, the image of Margarita and the posthumous fate of two heroes who love each other are important. For a, mercy is higher than revenge, higher than personal interests. Margarita trashes the apartment of the critic Latunsky, who killed the Master, but rejects the offer to destroy her enemy. After the ball at Satan's

the heroine first of all asks for the suffering Frida, forgetting about her own passionate desire to return the Master,

Shows his heroes the path of spiritual renewal and transformation. The novel, with its mysticism and fantastic episodes, challenges rationalism, philistinism, vulgarity and meanness, as well as pride and spiritual deafness. Thus, Berlioz, with his self-satisfied confidence in the future, leads the writer to death under the wheels of a tram. Ivan Bezdomny, on the contrary, turns out to be able to transform himself, abandoning past misconceptions. Here another interesting motive arises - the motive of spiritual awakening, which comes with the loss of what is considered reason in an inert society. It is in a psychiatric hospital that Ivan Bezdomny decides not to write any more of his pathetic poems. condemns militant atheism that has no true moral basis. An important idea of ​​the author, affirmed by his novel, is the idea of ​​​​the immortality of art. “Manuscripts don’t burn,” says Woland. But many bright ideas live among people thanks to students who continue the work of the teacher. This is Levin Matvey. Such is Ivanushka, whom the Master instructs to “write a sequel” to his novel. Thus, the author declares the continuity of ideas, their inheritance. Bulgakov’s interpretation of the function of “evil forces”, the devil, is unusual. Woland and his retinue, while in Moscow, brought decency and honesty back to life, punished evil and untruth. It is Woland who brings the Master and his girlfriend to their “eternal home”, giving them peace. The motif of peace is also significant in Bulgakovsky novel.

We must not forget about the bright pictures of Moscow life, remarkable for their expressiveness and satirical sharpness. There is a concept "bul" Gakovskaya Moscow", which appeared thanks to the writer’s talent to notice the details of the surrounding world and recreate them on the pages of his works,

The problems of the novel “The Master and Margarita” are complex and varied; understanding them requires serious research. However, it can be said that each reader penetrates into the depths in his own way. Bulgakovsky ideas, discovering new facets of the writer’s talent. A reader with a sensitive soul and developed mind cannot help but fall in love with this unusual, bright and attractive work. That is why talent has won so many sincere fans all over the world.

M and M (1929-1940) – the peak of Bulgakov’s creativity. Issues: psychological, social, but the main ones: moral and philosophical. Bulgakov's novel is called philosophical, philosophical and moral. This is a deeply philosophical novel, a tragedy novel. The Master's novel world is full of wonders and built on a reliable foundation. Everyone inside is saved (Margarita and cream). The master is not inside, and he cannot be saved. Bulgakov himself turned out to be beyond the control of the miracle he invented for the reader. The highest good for a person is to rely on the one who takes life. The Master is the only truly tragic image in the novel. The Master's tragedy is the reflected tragedy of the author.

As the content of the novel is revealed, a third, deeper layer emerges - where Yeshua operates. This layer is fundamental.

Main theme – power and time. Power is presented in concentrated form, in the form of dictatorship. Under such conditions, can a dictator and an artist not come into conflict? This theme determined the duality of the novel.

Kara overtakes everyone, even beyond the boundaries of human physical existence.

The moral and philosophical meaning of the novel lies in the categorical rejection of any form of life that suppresses the spiritual principle in a person and reduces a person to the level of a biological being. This is the “Last Judgment” of the administrative system and its creators. A novel about the Master and a novel about Pontius Pilate are not one, but two novels.

Theme of good and evil is one of the most important in the novel. Bulgakov believes that evil always balances good. The spreaders of evil on earth are people who are driven by the thirst for power, wealth, envy, cowardice and fear. These feelings are conductors of evil.

The main test of evil in the novel is Woland and his retinue (Korovyov, Behemoth, Azazello). Woland is the prince of darkness, Satan, but for Muscovites he is a foreigner, a professor of black magic. Testing people in the new Soviet reality, Woland comes to the conclusion that people, as before, are greedy and envious (this is evidenced by a trick performed by Woland’s retinue in a variety show, when money rained down on the stage, everyone rushed after it, and after a while they turned into transparent pieces of paper). The bearer of evil is needed in order to reveal the vices of humanity.

So, can evil be useful? This is a difficult philosophical question that many philosophers have tried to answer. Woland is closest to Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust. You can notice their external similarity: “...The right (eye) with a golden spark at the bottom, drilling anyone to the bottom of the soul, and the left - empty black, kind of like a narrow eye of a needle, like an exit to a bottomless well of all darkness and shadows. Woland’s face was slanted to the side, the right corner of his mouth was pulled down, and on his high, balding forehead there were deep wrinkles parallel to his sharp eyebrows...”



“I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good” - Bulgakov took this self-characteristic of Goethe’s hero as an epigraph to the novel.

Having retained Woland's external resemblance to Mephistopheles, Bulgakov endows him with opposite functions, entrusting him with the mission of fair retribution to a person after his death, that is, trial and sentencing.

But Woland should not be made a fighter for justice. People, first of all, carry their own punishment within themselves (So Pontius Pilate suffers, is tormented by remorse - this is his punishment. He atones for his crime and therefore he gets “light”). Yes, Woland does everything that befits Satan. But he is not omnipotent, so he does not touch those people who have a clear conscience and who carry goodness within themselves. Good is beyond his control. This is one of the main ideas of the novel.

Yeshua in the novel is the bearer of “light”. In the novel he is associated with Christ. And indeed, they have a lot in common: faith in the all-conquering power of good, in the fact that the time will come when humanity will move into the kingdom of truth and justice. But Bulgakov deliberately departs from both the historical and the gospel versions. For him, Yeshua is not a god, but first of all a man who has not caused harm to anyone either in thought or deed. He sees the best that is sometimes hidden in a person, he believes in the power of good and the good nature of man. The image of Yeshua embodies the traditional Christian idea of ​​mercy. In the face of death, Yeshua remained true to his convictions, he chooses death, and ultimately deserves “light.”

So, in the novel Woland and Yeshua appear before us. How do they relate to human spiritual capabilities? Woland believes that the entire history of mankind is the history of crimes. For Yeshua, man is by nature good (“there are no evil people in the world”), only social conditions disfigure people.

Both evil and good, Bulgakov argues, exist equally in the world, but they are generated primarily by people themselves. Bulgakov believes that every person should be free in his choice.

Speaking about good and evil, one cannot help but remember the Master. The master is immersed in creativity and does not think about self-interest at all; he writes a novel rather even for himself. But, faced with the world of writers, which is busy with everything but creativity, he could not stand the persecution and hated his novel. This erased the master from life; he stopped fighting for his novel. Giving up creativity turned out to be disastrous for him. His refuge has become a clinic for the mentally ill - only there can he find the peace that “good people” deprived him of. The master strives for light, strives for good. But he refused to fight for his novel, showed cowardice, and therefore he was denied “light.” The meeting of the Master with Woland occurs only thanks to Margarita, and deliverance from suffering is due to the intercession of Yeshua. Without the request of the “light,” the lovers who had found each other would have been left on earth, in their secret refuge. It is unknown what their fate would have been. The heroes deserve peace.

Thus, the intervention of higher powers does not lead to a change in life itself, it only accelerates the course of events.

Goodness educates and exalts a person, evil and indifference spoil him. You need to believe in people, in your own strength, in the power of good, then the truth will be revealed.

The dialectic of good and evil. The course of history is the eternal confrontation between good and evil, light and darkness.

Freedom is not freedom. Pontius Pilate is not free, he is a man of a totalitarian state. Yeshua has inner freedom, it is this that gives him strength. Pontius is cowardice, it destroys a person. But he was given forgiveness - he was able to take the blame upon himself. B shows that guilt must be expiated not with blood, but with repentance. Only conscience and repentance can cleanse and resurrect.

According to Bulgakov, light is a paradise where those who bring good to people go. Peace is independence, solitude, it is a condition for creativity. The one who has lived his life honestly, who is not burdened by the pangs of conscience, who does not punish himself for betrayal and cowardice, deserves peace. B emphasizes that the Master is an artist, not a fighter. He remained true to himself, did not change his ideas about the mission of the artist - this is the victory of the master over power and over time.

Bulgakov's talent as an artist came from God. And how this talent was expressed was largely determined by the circumstances of life and by how the writer’s fate unfolded.
In the early 20s of the 20th century, he conceived the novel “The Engineer with a Hoof,” but in 1937 it received a different name - “The Master and Margarita.” This work is an extraordinary creation, never seen before in Russian literature. This is some kind of fusion of Gogol's satire and Dante's poetry, a fusion of high and low, funny and sad.
Bulgakov wrote “The Master and Margarita” as a historically and psychologically reliable book about his time and people, and therefore the novel became a unique human document of that remarkable era. But at the same time, this narrative, full of deep thoughts, is directed to the future; this is a book, as they say, for all times. There is reason to believe that the author had little hope for the understanding and recognition of his work by his contemporaries.
In the novel “The Master and Margarita” there reigns a happy freedom of creative imagination and at the same time the rigor of the compositional concept. Satan rules the great ball, and the inspired Master, a contemporary of Bulgakov, writes his immortal novel. The Procurator of Judea sends Christ to execution, and nearby, fussing around, berating, adapting, and betraying the completely earthly citizens who inhabit the Garden and Bronnaya streets of Moscow in the 20s and 30s of the last century. Laughter and sadness, joy and pain are mixed in the novel, as in life, but in that high degree of concentration that is only accessible to a fairy tale or poem. “The Master and Margarita” is a lyrical and philosophical poem in prose about love and moral duty, about evil, about true creativity, which always overcomes inhumanity and breaks through to light and goodness.
The events in the novel begin “one spring, at the hour of an unprecedentedly hot sunset, in Moscow, on the Patriarch’s Ponds.” Satan and his retinue appear in the capital.
The Diaboliad, one of the author’s favorite motifs, here in “The Master and Margarita” plays a completely realistic role and can serve as a brilliant example of a grotesque-fantastic, satirical exposure of the contradictions of living reality. Woland sweeps over Bulgakov's Moscow like a thunderstorm, punishing all kinds of untruth and dishonesty.
The very idea of ​​placing the prince of darkness and his retinue in Moscow in the 1930s, embodying forces that defy any laws of logic, was deeply innovative. Woland appears in Moscow to “test” the heroes of the novel, to pay tribute to the Master and Margarita, who remained faithful to each other and love, to punish the bribe-takers, covetous people, and traitors. Their trial is not carried out according to the laws of good; they will appear before the face of hell. According to Bulgakov, in the current situation, evil should be fought with the forces of evil in order to restore justice. This is the tragic paradox of the novel. Woland returns to the Master his novel about Pontius Pilate, which the Master burns in a fit of fear and cowardice. The myth of Pilate and Yeshua, recreated in the Master’s book, takes the reader to the era of the emergence of Christianity, to the origins of European civilization, affirming the idea that the struggle between good and evil is eternal, that it lies in the very circumstances of life, in the human soul, capable of sublime impulses and enslaved by the false, transitory interests of today.
A fantastic plot twist allows the writer to unfold before us a whole gallery of characters of a very unsightly appearance. A sudden meeting with evil spirits “turns you inside out,” reveals the essence of all these Berliozs, Brass, Maigels, Nikanor Ivanovichs and others.
However, it is not the devil that is scary to the author and his favorite characters. The devil, perhaps, really does not exist for Bulgakov, just as the God-man does not exist. In his novel there lives a different, deep faith in historical man and in immutable moral laws. For the writer, the moral law is contained within a person and should not depend on religious fear of future retribution, the manifestation of which can easily be seen in the inglorious death of the well-read but unscrupulous atheist who headed MASSOLIT.
And the Master, who created the novel about Christ and Pilate, is also far from religiosity in the Christian sense of the word. He wrote a book of enormous psychological expressiveness based on historical material. This novel about a novel, as it were, focuses in itself those contradictions that all subsequent generations of people, every thinking and suffering person, are obliged to resolve with their lives.
The master could not win. By making him a winner, Bulgakov would have violated the laws of artistic truth and betrayed his sense of realism. But does the final pages of the book really emanate pessimism? Let's not forget: on earth the Master still had a student, Ivan Ponyrev, who had received his sight, and the former poet Ivan Bezdomny; The Master still has a novel left on earth that is destined to live a long life.
“The Master and Margarita” is a complex work. There are many interpretations of it. I think people will think about “The Master and Margarita” for a long time, write a lot, and argue a lot.


Each author puts his soul into his works, his vision of certain issues that face humanity at this stage of its development or were centuries ago. The number of these very questions varies: in some works there may be two or three of them, in others - more than ten. One of such multi-problem works, in my opinion, can be considered the novel by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”.

In this book, one of the most interesting is the image of Margarita. The main character of this novel combines such traits as vengeance and mercy, cruelty and self-sacrifice. It looks strange, but without shadow there is no light. Ideal people cannot be found because they do not exist. Everyone has both dark and light sides. Mercy and self-sacrifice appeared the moment the Master’s beloved learned Frida’s story.

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Despite the strict ban, Margarita showed special attention to this guest of Woland’s ball. Frida committed a sin by killing her child, for which she was punished. Her life became a nightmare, turning every night into the worst moments of her existence. A young woman looking for salvation found it in the person of the main character, who sacrificed her desire, which could be used in the name of saving the Master. Margarita spent this desire on a guest of the devil's ball, with whom life brought her together for the first time. Isn't this mercy and self-sacrifice?

There is an opinion that many people do not like the novel “The Master and Margarita” because the evil in it is not the devil, but the people themselves. I agree with this opinion, because I believe that Woland is not a negative character. He is, rather, a neutral character who exposes human vices and punishes people for their atrocities. A very indicative moment in Variety associated with money falling from the ceiling. Spectators began to catch them, excitement increased, the words were heard: “What are you grabbing? It’s mine! It was flying towards me!” Everyone tried to get a bigger and sweeter piece. I believe that Satan's goal was to try to understand whether people had changed during the period that he was away from our world. The session of black magic summed up the entire journey of the sir and his retinue: “... people are like people. They love money, but this has always been the case... Well, they are frivolous... well, well... and mercy sometimes knocks on their door hearts... ordinary people... In general, they resemble the old ones..."

Many works by various authors also reveal such a problem as creativity. In this work, she is shown through the image of the Master. This man quit his job to write a novel and poured his soul into it. He later admitted to a homeless man that after his novel was criticized by Latunsky, “joyless autumn days” came. The main character differed from the members of the Massolit organization in that he was more concerned about creativity rather than the well-being of his acquaintances.

I believe that the main secret of the success of this novel is that Bulgakov managed to combine a fantastic plot and deep philosophical subtext. Each reader will find in this work problems that are close to him.

Updated: 2017-08-16

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