The Master and Margarita Group Read: Part 2

This thread is a continuation of The Master and Margarita Group Read: Part 1 which began May 17th. Please begin posting here about your comments on chapters 19+, as well as your summaries of the entire book. It still might be helpful to bold the chapter headings, if you are commenting on specific chapters, or to indicate that you are talking about the entire book so that readers can avoid spoilers. Even if you haven't been an official part of our group read, please feel free to leave your comments about the book--it's one that invites multiple perspectives!

Chapters 19-21:
I thought these first few chapters about Margarita as a witch were incredibly feminist in nature. Although I'm afraid for her and Natasha in the future (I envisioned an orgy riverside), for now Natasha is free of social constraints, worry for her husband's status, fear of being discovered as a passionate woman, and restraint from seeking revenge on the critic who broke her lover's spirit and ruined his career. I found her joy refreshing, especially for a Russian novel. That said, I am very much afraid of what is to come.

At the beginning of Chapter 19, Bulgakov takes a very different tone and style, inviting the reader to follow him and addressing the reader directly. One of the questions he poses rhetorically on the first page is

Gods, my gods! What did this woman want? What did this woman want, whose eyes always burned with an incomprehensible fire? This witch with a slight squint in one eye, who adorned herself with mimosa in springtime--what did she want? I do not know. I have no idea.

Bulgakov seems to indicate a couple of thing in this passage. First, that the Margarita had a beautiful home, the envy of Moscow; a successful, young husband; and beauty and intelligence. What more could she want? Well, for starters: passion, freedom, purpose. All things that "good" women shouldn't pursue or need, and as for women who did want them, well they were witches. Secondly, Bulgakov seems to suggest that there was a hint of the "witch" in Margarita before the devil's proposal was even made: her wearing inappropriate flowers, having a secret lover (having a lover wasn't unusual, but keeping it secret was more so), her wild tempestuous desires. Is the pact in some way a fulfillment of Margarita's desires? Her destiny?

Even so, I have a premonition that disaster awaits. Don't all wild women come to bad ends, the ends they deserve?

Checking in to part II

Part II was for me a faster, more enjoyable read, perhaps because I stopped trying to understand all of the specific symbolism and paid attention mostly to broader themes.

Overall Impressions

I found the most interesting aspect of the story to be the interplay between good and evil, with most characters exhibiting aspects of both. The beginning quote from Faust (Faust questioning Mephistopheles) sums it up perfectly.

‘…who are you then?’
‘I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.’
Goethe, Faust

Chapters 29, 32

This same premise is restated by Woland in his encounter with Matthew Levi, in a manner similar to the discussion on the Part I thread.

Kindly consider the question: what would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it? Shadows are cast by objects and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. Trees and living beings also have shadows. Do you want to skin the whole earth, tearing all the trees and living things off it, because of your fantasy of enjoying bare light? You’re a fool.

Spoiler: As the story comes to a close, it is clear that even Woland has a good and fair side. While wrecking havoc and tolerating his assistants’ destructiveness, he also places limits on their actually causing injury. He cooperates with Matthew Levi’s request that the Master and Margarita be rewarded with eternal peace, and does not interfere with Pontius Pilate being released from what I assumed to be Purgatory, to enter Heaven. And he allows Koroviev, Behemoth and Azazello to return to their true forms, having paid their "accounts".

Overall Impressions, Discussion, Questions on finishing the book

>2 labfs39: I like your ideas about Margarita and Natasha. I did feel like Margarita made her own decisions and certainly wasn't tricked or forced into her deal with the devil. I was never quite sure why she was so enamored with the Master and his writing, though. I guess it ended up being a path to "freedom" at least from her marriage, but I didn't really feel much love between the two of them, especially on Margarita's end. She seemed much more in love with the book than him.

>4 Linda92007: This book brought up a lot of questions about good and evil for me as well. I thought the line "He has not earned light he has earned peace" said by Levi to Woland was really interesting. I don't usually think of the devil as being able to grant peace, but I guess that not having the "light" is the ultimate punishment.

I have a few questions about some of the details of the book that I couldn't work out. I got a little confused about the Pontius Pilate book and the relationship between Woland and the Master. For instance, when Woland retells Pilate's story in Chapter 2, is that his own words or is it supposed to be part of the Master's book? I of course thought it was just Woland's words when I first read it, but it fits so perfectly with the Master's book later that I got confused. Was Woland supposed to be kind of writing the book through the Master? Or was the Master's writing what drew the devil to Moscow?

Also, I feel like there were some contradictions is what happens to the Master and Margarita at the end. For instance, in chapter 30, both the Master and Margarita die. They drink the poison with Azazello, but their bodies are in their normal places - the Master in his hospital room where the nurse tells Ivan his neighbor has died, and Margarita in her apartment where she seems to have a heart attack and die on her living room floor. But in the Epilogue, when he talks about the investigations, Bulgakov says that there was a gang abduction of the patient from No. 118 (the Master) and that the investigation ultimately concludes that Margarita and Natasha were hypnotized and abducted by a gang. If the devil went to the trouble of making them look like they had normal deaths, why this explanation in the epilogue? Shouldn't their deaths have been relatively unsuspicious?

#2 - We should encourage feminism, especially of this kind.

I've returned to Pilate in Part II and I have the same questions japaul22 has. At the moment it would seem to me that Woland was reading the master's text to Berlioz and Homeless, which means that he wasn't actually describing death of Jesus, which may mean he wasn't actually there, which may mean he's not actually the Devil...or something. Maybe some of this will be cleared up.

Also, keep in mind that the Master burned his text. How do we know that the "saved" text is really the Master's or whether it's actually different?

The unclear origin of the pieces of the Pilate texts seems to add of lot of ambiguity and possible readings into the book. When I start to list them, I get a little lost.

I am still in the middle of Margarita's flight as a witch, which I truly love. And I feel, in answer to the question Lisa quoted in post 2, I think part of what she finds -- and maybe wants -- is freedom. Freedom to fly, freedom to be invisible by choice (i.e., not made "invisible" by Stalin's goons), freedom to act (smashing windows in revenge) and to say what she thinks . . .

By the way, I didn't comment in the other thread but I was struck by Lisa's analogy of the farce of the variety show to the farce of the show trials.

>5 japaul22: I am just going off the top of my head and what I remember from the book, not having it in front of me, but I thought that part of the epilogue about gang abductions was a parody of an official government explanation, i.e., "we can't explain this by natural causes so we're going to attribute it to the work of a "gang"." Sort of the way the Soviets would attribute any problems they couldn't control to "subversion" or "sabotage."

I have to say the 2nd part was way better. Margarita's flight as the witch but the Ball just loved this part I couldnt put it down. I guess there is a really dark side to me because just the image of all these people dropping down dead either from still hanging or from coffins was just WOW.

#10 It is just so entertaining. And the Master does kind of spoil it all...I think Natasha made a better request.

#5 I didn't really feel much love between the two of them, especially on Margarita's end. She seemed much more in love with the book than him.

Wondering about that. If she her true love is the book...what does this mean?

(I spent some time trying to make this question more specific, but was unable to. What does it mean for Margarita's motivation? What does it mean for how she treats the Master? What does it mean for her relationship and treatment by Wolland? What does it mean for the book itself? Can we extrapolate this outward - toward religion, toward 1930's USSR, toward Stalin and the secret service? Anyway, what is the book about? Is it really just a commentary on the USSR secret service - whatever it was called then? And - why is the book so special anyway?)

I really enjoyed rereading this, and first I will link to my original review because I really don't have a lot to add to it.

I did find myself thinking more, on this read, about the role of the Pontius Pilate story, beyond serving as a counterpoint to the Moscow story and commenting on it. That is, is there more to make of the religious aspect of the story as opposed to the political and the personal? And also, I thought more about about the role of Ivan Homeless who, as the translator Richard Pevear points out in the introduction to my edition, appears from the very beginning of the book to its very end and is the one person who hears both Woland's version of the Pontius Pilate tale and the master's. I can't say I came to any conclusions, but I'd be interested in what anyone else thinks.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the way Bulgakov satirizes the literary and theatrical establishments

In answer to some of the questions posed above, I do think Margarita not only loves the master, but is devoted to him, and she loves his writing ability too. However, Margarita exhibits the key character trait of the novel -- courage -- and the master doesn't, and she immediately agrees to do what the devil wants because she believes that is how she will be reunited with the master.

I believe that the issue of "peace" and "light" is interpreted as "light" representing joining Jesus in heaven (i.e., following the moonlit pathway) and "peace" being purgatory as opposed to hell. The master does not deserve light because he was not courageous enough (some commentary relates this to Bulgakov's feelings about not being courageous enough with respect to Stalin).

And I totally think the epilogue is a parody of Soviet bureaucratic explanations.

Here is a link to the introduction by Richard Pevear to the edition that I have; as I note in my original review, I found it very helpful. (I have no idea whether this introduction is legitimately posted on this M&M site, given Pevear's undoubted copyright to this material.)

Thank you, Rebecca, for your link to the intro by Pevear--it's fabulous. Ellendea Proffer's afterword is not available, at least that I could find. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to scan and email a copy. Being Bulgakov's biographer, Proffer offers another perspective. Her notes, too, were extensive and extremely helpful.

I'm sorry that I fell off the bandwagon, everyone. I was not on LT for three weeks, and, to my disappointment, I didn't get to participate in the discussion of the second half of the book. I'm not sure that I will write a review, but I want to thank everyone who joined me on the amazing ride of reading M&M. I've always been intimidated about reading it, but your encouragement helped me take the plunge. It was well worth it!

Lisa - thanks for getting this going. It was a fun group to read with.

Lisa, I agree with Dan. If it were not for you having organized the GR, I would still not have read this wonderful book. Thanks!

And I would not have reread it, which I really enjoyed doing with this wonderful group.

PS Lisa, Look for a PM from me with my e-mail for the Proffer afterword. Thanks so much.

per Lisa's request, here are links to the review I posted Sunday:

on my thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/138560#3445496
the review page: http://www.librarything.com/work/10151/reviews

Finished TMAM just under the wire on June 29th after starting late. I had been reading the Glenny translation but finished the last 75 pages or so in a library with the Pevear translation, which made an interesting though subtle shift in some of the characterization. Here is a link to an article on translations of this book:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/618738-mikhail-bulgakov-s-the-master-and-mar...

Interesting link SL.