Rational Versus Irrational in the Master and Margarita

Ivan Shatsilenia Erin Nicholson Eng2150 Rational versus Irrational in The Master and Margarita In 2005 the movie adaptation of Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita was released on Russian TV. According to Gallup Media, it was watched by 47.1 % of the total Russian TV audience and became a nation-wide spectacle. Why is The Master and Margarita still so popular? Regardless of its complexity, the novel is very entertaining, funny in places, and has the elements of a detective story. In Eastern Europe many people love Bulgakov’s text for his satire of Soviet bureaucracy, Communist ideology and everyday life. Another aspect that fuels the interest in the novel is that it allows for varied interpretations. The novel consists of three closely related stories. The first story focuses on Woland (a prototype of devil) who visits Moscow of 1930s and together with his companions creates havoc in the city. The second story is about the Master, an artist, and his beloved Margarita who inspires him to write a genius novel about Pontius Pilate. After Soviet censorship rejected the Master’s novel, and under the attacks of corrupted critics, he burns his manuscripts and ends up in psychiatric hospital. Margarita makes a pact with devil and saves him. The third story is the Master’s narration of the Crucifixion of Yeshua (a symbol of Christ). It is the novel inside the novel and reaches the reader indirectly through the dialogues and dreams of the characters. Some critics attempted to explain the meaning of The Master and Margarita by exploring the influences of Faust by Goethe, Graph Monte-Cristo by Dumas, Gofman’s and others’ works. The others based their arguments on the relation of the novel to the New Testament or based on the scrutiny of Bulgakov’s biography. These are attempts to interpret the novel based on rational judgments; however, Bulgakov rejects such methods within the text in The Master and Margarita thereby implying that the novel must be

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