Essay On Bulgakov's Heart Of A Dog

In Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog, a certain Professor Preobrazhenskij engages in an experiment involving the surgical replacement of certain organs in a dog, with those take from a human corpse. The descriptions of the initial idea, execution, and ensuing consequences of this experiment are used by Bulgakov to fairly obviously criticize the Bolshevik party and its ideals. Specifically, Bulgakov wrote in order to lambaste the goal of the Bolshevik party to rejuvenate society by focusing on the creation of a perfect, new individual that would be a perfect soviet citizen. The reader gleans from the first few chapters of the novel, even before reading of the actual experiment performed on the dog, that Dr. Preobrazhenskij is involved with important leaders within the government, that he has performed experiments in the rejuvenation of humans, and that he has considered the transplantation of human and animal organs. The reader also comes to somewhat of an understanding of Preobrozhenskij’s and, by inference, Bulgakov’s opinion of the ruling Bolshevik party. Preobrazhenkij states, “People who think you can use
Preobrazhenskij’s experiment is a failure, and Sharik turns out to be a terrible person, more beast than man. Bulgakov is obviously making the point that man cannot be forced to change. Man cannot be forced to fulfill the desires of a certain ideology or system of government. This is clear from Preobrazhenskij’s statement regarding Sharik, “Nobody should be whipped. Remember that, once and for all. Neither man nor animal can be influenced by anything but suggestion.” Bulgakov, in this novel, is obviously criticizing the attempt of the Bolshevik party to force a change on people, a change that would make them become ‘perfect’