Who does Woland's retinue consist of? Woland's retinue in the novel The Master and Margarita Bulgakova description of the members of the retinue essay. Characteristics of the heroes of the retinue

When I wrote a post about, I became interested in where Satan got his horns from? Everything turned out to be quite sad... but I “came” to the demon Azazel... and... I remembered one of my favorite books

And I began to wonder who became the prototypes of Woland’s retinue... It was not difficult to find information - “The Master and Margarita” is a fairly well-known work, a lot of works and a lot of research have been written about it. There is an excellent website about Bulgakov, where you can get all the necessary information. While reading the materials, I took notes a little...

So... Monsieur Woland and his retinue.

Koroviev - Bassoon

According to various researchers, in the surname Koroviev You can find associations with Mr. Korovkin from Dostoevsky’s story “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants.” And also with the vile state councilor Telyaev from Alexei Tolstoy’s story “The Ghoul”, who turns out to be the knight Ambrose and a vampire.

The second part of the name - Bassoon many consider it to be the name of a musical instrument. They say the hero looks like a bassoon - tall, thin and narrow-shouldered. However, there is a more elegant version. I. Galinskaya believes that the name “Bassoon” was associated not so much with a musical instrument, but with the word “ heretic": "Bulgakov combined two multilingual words in it: Russian "bassoon" and French " fagot", and among the meanings of the French lexeme " fagot" ("bundle of branches") she calls such phraseology as " sentir le fagot"("to give by heresy", that is, to give by fire, with bundles of branches for the fire)."

In the last flight, the buffoon Koroviev transforms into a gloomy dark purple knight with a never smiling face. This knight" once made a bad joke... his pun, which he made while talking about light and darkness, was not entirely good. And after that the knight had to joke a little more and longer than he expected."

The original prototype of the knight Bassoon here was, in all likelihood, the bachelor Samson Carrasco, one of the main characters in Bulgakov’s dramatization of the novel “Don Quixote” (1605-1615) by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616).

Samson Carrasco by artist Jesus Barranco and Alexander Abdulov, in the image of Bassoon:

Sanson Carrasco, trying to force Don Quixote to return home to his relatives, accepts the game he has started, impersonates the Knight of the White Moon, defeats the Knight of the Sorrowful Image in a duel and forces the defeated man to promise to return to his family. However, Don Quixote, having returned home, cannot survive the collapse of his fantasy, which has become life itself for him, and dies. Don Quixote, whose mind has become clouded, expresses the bright principle, the primacy of feeling over reason, and the learned bachelor, symbolizing rational thinking, does a dirty deed, contrary to his intentions. It is possible that it was the Knight of the White Moon who was punished by Woland with centuries of forced buffoonery for his tragic joke on the Knight of the Sad Image, which ended in the death of the noble hidalgo.

Hippopotamus

The author of “The Master and Margarita” gleaned information about Behemoth from the book by M.A. Orlov’s “The History of Man’s Relations with the Devil” (1904), extracts from which are preserved in the Bulgakov archive. There, in particular, the case of a French abbess who lived in the 17th century was described. and possessed by seven devils, the fifth demon being Behemoth. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant head, a trunk and fangs. His hands were human-shaped, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs, like those of a hippopotamus, reminded him of his name. The hippopotamus in the demonological tradition is the demon of the desires of the stomach. Hence his extraordinary gluttony, especially in Torgsin, when he indiscriminately swallows everything edible.

In the third picture is a fragment of William Blake’s painting “Hippopotamus and Leviathan” and Alexander Bashirov, who plays the role of Hippopotamus in Bortko’s film:

In Bulgakov, Behemoth became a huge black werewolf cat, since black cats are traditionally considered associated with evil spirits. Except that his hands remained human-shaped, hence the glass of vodka in the cat’s hand and the coin that he handed to the conductor.

The hippopotamus in the novel mostly jokes and fools around, which reveals Bulgakov’s truly sparkling humor, and also causes confusion and fear in many people with its unusual appearance.
I would also like to note that there are more images of the cat Behemoth on the Internet. Only Woland can compete with him.
About Behemoth in the Bulgakov Encyclopedia

Azazello

The name Azazello was formed by Bulgakov from the Old Testament name Azazel (or Azazel). The legend about Azazel as one of the fallen angels arose quite late (no earlier than the 3rd century BC) in Jewish folklore and was recorded, in particular, in the famous apocryphal Book of Enoch. In the Book of Enoch, Azazel is the leader of the antediluvian giants who rebelled against God. He taught men to fight, and women - the art of deception, seduced people into godlessness and taught them debauchery. In the end he was tied, by God's command, to a desert rock.

In the middle is an ancient engraving with the demon Azazel and the performer of the role of Azazello Alexander Filippenko:

Thanks to Azazel, women have mastered the “lascivious art” of painting their faces. Therefore, it is Azazello who gives Margarita a cream that magically changes her appearance.

I would also like to mention the tradition associated with Azazel. It was believed that on the day of atonement it was necessary to make two sacrifices: one to Yahweh, the other to Azazel. For this purpose, two goats were chosen, onto which the people seemed to transfer their sins. The animal that was intended to be sacrificed to the demon was released into the desert, where, according to legend, Azazel lived (hence the expression “scapegoat”)

Bulgakov was probably attracted by the combination of seduction and murder in one character. It is precisely for the insidious seducer that Margarita mistakes Azazello during their first meeting in the Alexander Garden.
Azazello in the Bulgakov Encyclopedia

Gella

M.A. Bulgakov took the name “Gella” from the article “Sorcery” in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, where it was noted that in Lesvos this name was used to call untimely dead girls who became vampires after death.

The only one from Woland's retinue, absent in the scene of the last flight. The third wife of the writer E. S. Bulgakov believed that this was the result of the unfinished work on “The Master and Margarita”. According to the memoirs of V. Ya. Lakshin, when he pointed out to her G.’s absence in the last scene, “Elena Sergeevna looked at me in confusion and suddenly exclaimed with unforgettable expression: “Misha forgot Gella!!!”

But it is possible that Bulgakov deliberately removed Gella. from the scene of the last flight as the youngest member of the retinue, performing only auxiliary functions, besides, she would have no one to turn into in the last flight, after all, she retained her original appearance. When the night “exposed all deceptions,” Hella could only become a dead girl again.
Gella in the Bulgakov Encyclopedia

Abadonna

By the way, Abaddon is mentioned in another novel by Bulgakov - “The White Guard”, where the patient of Alexei Turbin, a patient with syphilis and the poet Rusakov, who had read the Revelation of John the Theologian, connects this angel with the military leader of the Bolsheviks L. D. Trotsky, whose name is supposedly “in Hebrew Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon, which means destroyer.”

There is an opinion that Bulgakov saw the image of the demon of war in the poet Vasily Zhukovsky’s poem “Abbadon” (1815), which is a free translation of the epilogue of the poem “Messiad” (1751-1773) by the German romanticist Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.

In The Master and Margarita, Abaddon is a demon of war, keeping Woland’s living crystal globe, where people are dying and houses hit by bombs and shells are smoking, and Abbadona impartially watches to ensure that the suffering for both warring sides is the same.

The war unleashed by Abadona and presented to the gaze of Margarita is a very specific war. On Woland’s globe, “a piece of land, the side of which is washed by the ocean,” which became a theater of military operations, represents the Iberian Peninsula. Here is Spain, where in 1936-1939. There was a bloody civil war.
About Abadonna in the Bulgakov Encyclopedia
About Abadon on Wikipedia

Woland

Of course, the main prototype of Woland is Goethe's Mephistopheles. It is not for nothing that even the epigraph of the novel is a quote from Faust. And the name itself Woland taken from Goethe's poem, where it is mentioned only once and is usually omitted in Russian translations. This is what Mephistopheles calls himself in the Walpurgis Night scene, demanding that the evil spirits give way: " Nobleman Woland is coming!". In the prose translation by A. Sokolovsky (1902), this place is given as follows:
"Mephistopheles: That's where it took you! I see that I need to put my master's rights into action. Hey, you! The place! Mr. Woland is coming!"

In the commentary, the translator explained the German phrase as follows: " Junker Voland kommt": "Junker means a noble person (nobleman), and Woland was one of the names of the devil. The main word "Faland" (which meant deceiver, crafty) was already used by ancient writers in the sense of devil".
By the way, the last name appears in the novel: after a session of black magic, the employees of the Variety Theater try to remember the name of the magician: " - In... It seems, Woland. Or maybe not Woland? Maybe Faland".
By the way, according to another version, this designation comes from the name of the Anglo-Saxon god Wayland...

As amended in 1929-1930. The name Woland was reproduced in full Latin on his business card: “Dr Theodor Voland.” In the final text, Bulgakov abandoned the Latin alphabet: Ivan Bezdomny on the Patriarchs remembers only the initial letter of the surname - W ("double-ve"). The version why the author replaced the original V (“fau”) is that the German “Voland” is pronounced like Foland, and this, you see, is not so impressive.

Woland's portrait is shown before the start of the Great Ball" Two eyes fixed on Margarita’s face. The right one with a golden spark at the bottom, drilling anyone to the bottom of the soul, and the left one is empty and black, kind of like a narrow eye of a needle, like an exit into 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 deep wrinkles were cut into his high, bald forehead, parallel to his sharp eyebrows. The skin on Woland’s face seemed to be forever burned by a tan."

M.V. Nesterov draws attention to the similarity in appearance of Woland and the artist F.I. Chaliapin, who played Mephistopheles on stage.

Fyodor Chaliapin as Mythistophiles, Viktor Avilov and Oleg Basiashvili as Woland:

Also, many critics, directors and researchers draw a parallel between Woland and Stalin, mentioning the “legend of Stalin’s hoof” (According to legend, Stalin’s two toes on his left foot were completely fused, like a hoof), the original title of the novel “The Engineer’s Hoof”, as well as the quote from the leader of the people put into Woland’s mouth: “Facts are a stubborn thing "

Others consider Woland to be the prototype Lenin. B. Sokolov cites as an example episodes from the life of V. Lenin, transferred by Bulgakov to the pages of the novel. For example, the situation when in the fall of 1917 Lenin was hiding from the Provisional Government and the police were looking for him with the help of a dog named Tref, is reminiscent of an episode from the novel, where we are talking about the search for Woland and his retinue by detectives from the criminal investigation department and their bloodhound Tuzbuben.

However, in my opinion, these parallels are just a hint of who controls the thoughts and actions of the leaders of the USSR....

Also, some researchers argue that Woland, being a devil, is endowed with some obvious attributes of God. The devil is the creation of God, but can God create something evil? Satan turns the power he receives from him against God and, as a result, against his will, contributes to the fulfillment of God's plan. This is the main difference between Bulgakov’s character and his “brothers”... If the same Mephistopheles is a demon, an insidious seducer, whose main goal is to destroy the soul of a person, then Woland is a servant of God and he is noble in his own way, for example, he professes the values ​​denied by Mephistophiles : loyalty to love and devotion to creativity...

Who cares about the other characters in the novel...

The Lord of the Forces of Darkness himself, in the form of the foreigner Woland, appears in Moscow, accompanied by his faithful retinue: the cat Behemoth, Koroviev-Fagot, Azazello and the vampire Gella.

The main trinity is a group of key characters in the novel “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov, and also bright and mysterious personalities with their own original abilities and unique talents. All three characters play the role of jesters and buffoons in the novel, their calling is to organize and demonstrate shocking antics and shows that shock Moscow society, but in fact to reveal human weaknesses and vices.

Characteristics of the heroes of the retinue

Woland's first jester and favorite is the charismatic and cheerful prankster cat Behemoth. In the book of Enoch from the Old Testament, Behemoth is a sea monster, a demon with an elephant's head and tusks, human hands, a massive body with short legs and a small tail like an ordinary hippopotamus (hence the name). In Bulgakov's work, the sea monster turned into a werecat, and its prototype in real life was the writer's favorite pet - a huge gray cat named Flushka. In the novel, the cat Behemoth also has quite impressive dimensions, but the color of his fur is black, after all, he is a representative of evil spirits.

In the novel, the cat Behemoth, like a real clown, mostly fools around and jokes, frightens the residents of Moscow with his gigantic size, talks like a person and walks on his hind legs, loves to drink vodka or beer, and smokes cigarettes. He is terribly charming, loves to talk, is a terrible braggart and insolent. May look like a person with a “cat face”. Almost always he acts, commits crimes, acts outrageously and carries out Woland’s orders with the participation of his inseparable partner Koroviev. In fact, the cat is a demon in the service of the devil, who, at the ball, throwing off the guise of a cat, turns into a thin young page - “the best jester that existed in the world.”

Koroviev, nicknamed Fagot, is the faithful assistant and partner in pranks of the cat Behemoth. He has a dubious reputation and is, as he himself declares, “the devil knows what”: a magician, a former regent, a sorcerer and a foreign translator. He is the eldest devil of all the demons who are in the service of Satan, always ready to carry out his instructions. In the old days, he made an unsuccessful joke on the topic of light and darkness, and was doomed to become an eternal jester in tattered circus rags with the vile manners of a crook.

He is very tall and thin, has an unpleasant, mocking face with mustaches like chicken feathers, wears a checkered suit, a jockey's cap and cracked pince-nez. He looks very untidy and sloppy, giving the impression of an ugly and vile buffoon and crook. Everywhere and everywhere he is inseparable from his partner Behemoth, doing various obscene things with him.

Azazello is a demon and Woland's assistant. One of the books of the Old Testament mentions the fallen angel Azazel, who taught men to wield weapons and showed women the “harlot art” of face painting. This is a man with a “robber’s face”, short in stature, athletic in build, has red hair, an eyesore and a fang in his mouth, wears a bowler hat and plays the role of brute force. He is the ideal performer if you need to kill, beat or shoot someone. This is a very dangerous type, a demon killer who takes a very clear and organized approach to the tasks assigned to him. He does not like women and does not stand on ceremony with them; he treats his master with due respect and respect.

The youngest member of the retinue is the vampire Gella, a young witch with red hair and a scar all over her neck. Vampires have always been considered inferior creatures and therefore her role in Woland’s retinue is secondary and insignificant.

The image of the retinue in the work

Woland's retinue, which essentially represents the forces of evil, actually plays a rather unusual role in the novel. Usually we imagine that demons and devils lead respectable people astray, seducing and tempting them with sweet forbidden fruits. But in this case, they bring to light the sinners hiding behind the mask of the righteous, expose all the hidden vices of society and punish (and in a very unique way) those who have long deserved it.

It is no coincidence that almost all members of the retinue are presented in comic images, because in order not to go completely crazy and to relieve the tension that the reader experiences from tragic resolutions of questions of existence and the escalation of negative events that lead to horror, it is possible only with the help of laughter and irony.

Woland's retinue has been doing the same thing for many centuries - harshly punishing those who are unworthy of light and peace. Thanks to Bulgakov’s brilliant plan, they are not at all perceived as absolute evil, because according to their owner Woland, without darkness, there would be no light.

Woland and retinue

Woland

Woland is a character in the novel The Master and Margarita, who leads the world of otherworldly forces. Woland is the devil, Satan, the prince of darkness, the spirit of evil and the lord of shadows (all these definitions are found in the text of the novel). Woland is largely focused on Mephistopheles, even the name Woland itself is taken from Goethe’s poem, where it is mentioned only once and is usually omitted in Russian translations.

The prince's appearance.

Woland's portrait is shown before the start of the Great Ball "Two eyes stared into Margarita's face. The right one with a golden spark at the bottom, drilling anyone to the bottom of the soul, and the left one - empty and 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, deep wrinkles were cut into his high, bald forehead, parallel to his sharp eyebrows. The skin on Woland’s face seemed to have been forever burned by tan.” intrigue, and then directly declares through the mouth of the Master and Woland himself that the devil has definitely arrived at the Patriarch’s. The image of Woland - majestic and regal, is placed in contrast to the traditional view of the devil as the "monkey of God"

The purpose of Messire's coming to earth

Woland gives different explanations for the purposes of his stay in Moscow to different characters who come into contact with him. He tells Berlioz and Bezdomny that he has arrived to study the found manuscripts of Hebert of Avrilak. To the employees of the Variety Theater, Woland explains his visit with the intention of performing a black magic session. After the scandalous session, Satan tells the bartender Sokov that he simply wanted to “see the Muscovites en masse, and the most convenient way to do this was in the theater.” Before the start of the Great Ball at Satan's, Margarita Koroviev-Fagot informs that the purpose of Woland and his retinue's visit to Moscow is to hold this ball, whose hostess must bear the name Margarita and be of royal blood. Woland has many faces, as befits the devil, and in conversations with different people he puts on different masks. At the same time, Woland’s omniscience of Satan is completely preserved (he and his people are well aware of both the past and future lives of those with whom they come into contact, they also know the text of the Master’s novel, which literally coincides with the “Gospel of Woland”, the same thing that was told to the unlucky writers at the Patriarch's.

A world without shadows is empty

Woland's unconventionality lies in the fact that he, being a devil, is endowed with some obvious attributes of God. Dialectical unity, the complementarity of good and evil are most clearly revealed in Woland’s words addressed to Matthew Levi, who refused to wish health to the “spirit of evil and the lord of shadows” (“Do you want to rip off the entire globe, blowing away all the trees and all living things from it?” -for your fantasy to enjoy the naked light (You are stupid." In Bulgakov, Woland literally revives the Master's burnt novel - a product of artistic creativity, preserved only in the creator's head, materializes again, turns into a tangible thing. Woland is the bearer of fate, this is connected with a long-standing a tradition in Russian literature that connected fate, fate, fate not with God, but with the devil. In Bulgakov, Woland personifies the fate that punishes Berlioz, Sokov and others who violate the norms of Christian morality. This is the first devil in world literature, punishing for non-compliance with the commandments of Christ.

Koroviev - Bassoon

Background

The hero's surname was found in the story by F.M. Dostoevsky's "The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants", where there is a character named Korovkin, very similar to our Koroviev. His second name comes from the name of the musical instrument bassoon, invented by an Italian monk. The Koroviev-Fagot has some similarities with the bassoon - a long thin tube folded in three. Bulgakov’s character is thin, tall and in imaginary servility, it seems, ready to fold himself three times over in front of his interlocutor (in order to then calmly harm him)

Regent's Appearance

Here is his portrait: “...a transparent citizen of a strange appearance, On his small head there is a jockey cap, a checkered short jacket..., a citizen a fathom tall, but narrow in the shoulders, incredibly thin, and his face, please note, is mocking”; "...his mustache is like chicken feathers, his eyes are small, ironic and half-drunk"

The appointment of the lascivious gayar

Koroviev-Fagot is a devil who emerged from the sultry Moscow air (unprecedented heat for May at the time of his appearance is one of the traditional signs of the approach of evil spirits). Woland's henchman, only when necessary, puts on various disguises: a drunken regent, a guy, a clever swindler, a sneaky translator for a famous foreigner, etc. Only in the last flight does Koroviev-Fagot become what he really is - a gloomy demon, a knight Bassoon, who knows the value of human weaknesses and virtues no worse than his master

Azazello

Origin

The name Azazello was formed by Bulgakov from the Old Testament name Azazel. This is the name of the negative hero of the Old Testament book of Enoch, the fallen angel who taught people how to make weapons and jewelry

Knight image

Bulgakov was probably attracted by the combination of seduction and murder in one character. It is Azazello who Margarita takes for an insidious seducer during their first meeting in the Alexander Garden: “This neighbor turned out to be short, fiery red, with a fang, in starched underwear, in a good-quality striped suit, in patent leather shoes and with a bowler hat on his head.” Absolutely. robber's face!" thought Margarita"

Purpose in the novel

But Azazello's main function in the novel is related to violence. He throws Styopa Likhodeev out of Moscow to Yalta, expels Uncle Berlioz from the Bad Apartment, and kills the traitor Baron Meigel with a revolver. Azazello also invented the cream that he gives to Margarita. The magic cream not only makes the heroine invisible and able to fly, but also gives her a new, witch-like beauty.

Cat Behemoth

Origin

The author of “The Master and Margarita” gleaned information about Behemoth from the book by M.A. Orlov’s “The History of Man’s Relations with the Devil” (1904), extracts from which are preserved in the Bulgakov archive. There, in particular, the case of a French abbess who lived in the 17th century was described. and possessed by seven devils, the fifth demon being Behemoth. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant head, a trunk and fangs. His hands were human-shaped, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs, like those of a hippopotamus, reminded him of his name.

Hippopotamus image

In Bulgakov, Behemoth became a huge black werewolf cat, since black cats are traditionally considered associated with evil spirits. This is how we see him for the first time: “... on the jeweler’s pouffe, in a cheeky pose, a third person was lounging, namely, a terribly sized black cat with a glass of vodka in one paw and a fork, on which he had managed to pry a pickled mushroom, in the other.” The hippopotamus in the demonological tradition is the demon of the desires of the stomach. Hence his extraordinary gluttony, especially in Torgsin, when he indiscriminately swallows everything edible.

Appointment of the Jester

Probably everything is clear here without additional digressions. Behemoth's shootout with the detectives in apartment No. 50, his chess match with Woland, the shooting competition with Azazello - all these are purely humorous scenes, very funny and even to some extent remove the severity of the everyday, moral and philosophical problems that the novel poses to reader.

Gella

Gella is a member of Woland’s retinue, a female vampire: “I recommend my maid Gella. She is efficient, understanding, and there is no service that she cannot provide.”

Origin of the witch-vampire

Bulgakov took the name “Gella” from the article “Sorcery” in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, where it was noted that in Lesbos this name was used to call untimely dead girls who became vampires after death.

Gella's image

The beautiful Gella, a green-eyed, red-haired girl who prefers not to burden herself with excess clothing and dresses only in a lace apron, moves freely through the air, thereby gaining a resemblance to a witch. Bulgakov may have borrowed the characteristic features of vampire behavior - clicking teeth and smacking his lips - from the story by A.K. Tolstoy's "Ghoul". There, a vampire girl turns her lover into a vampire with a kiss - hence, obviously, Gella’s fatal kiss for Varenukha

Background of the heroes

Azazello. Let us turn our attention to the last chapter of the novel: Azazello was flying at the side of everyone, shining with the steel of his armor. The moon also changed his face. The absurd, ugly fang disappeared without a trace, and the crooked eye turned out to be false. Both of Azazello's eyes were the same, empty and black, and his face was white and cold. Now Azazello flew in his true form, like a demon of the waterless desert, a demon-killer. Well, let's try to find this desert, which is the birthplace of my friend. Even the most inveterate loser knows that in Moscow looking for a desert, and especially a waterless one, is a futile task. Then we have no choice but to turn to another place where the events of the novel unfolded - Jerusalem, that is, to the Arabian Peninsula, where there are plenty of waterless deserts. What will we find in them? The festival of Azazel, a festival of the offering of goats, widespread among numerous Arab tribes. Its essence was to pay off Azazel - the ruthless angel of death, who, according to the beliefs of the Arabs, all in black and on black wings flew to a person in order to take his soul with him. Azazel was armed with a sword, which he wielded masterfully. His face was pale and cold, and his eyes were empty and black. They feared and revered him incredibly, and in order to appease him, they dressed the unfortunate goat in wreaths of flowers, decorated its horns with ribbons, hung it with gifts and released it into the desert, thus sacrificing it. By the way, this is where the scapegoat comes from. However, according to the beliefs of the same tribes, Azazel came only second to the dying person. And the first was the angel Avadon, the messenger of death. As black as Azazel, he was famous for the fact that his wings were completely hung... with pairs of human eyes. He appeared to people with his eyes closed, and only the dying met his gaze. Avadon looked into the man's eyes, and he read his sentence. If a person could meet Azazel several times along the path of life, then with Avadon only once. And if there was a lucky person who managed to avoid death at the hands of Azazel after such a meeting, then Avadon gave him a pair of eyes from his wings, allowing him to see everything differently. These were the eyes for the human soul. And now let’s turn again to the text of the novel: “Abadonna,” Woland called quietly, and then the figure of some thin man in dark glasses appeared from the wall. For some reason, these glasses made such a strong impression on Margarita that she, quietly screaming, buried her face in Woland’s leg. “Stop it,” Woland shouted... “You see that he’s wearing glasses.” In addition, there has never been, nor will there be, a case of Abadonna appearing to anyone prematurely. And finally, I’m here!... - Is it possible for him to take off his glasses for a second? - Margarita asked, clinging to Woland and shuddering, but out of curiosity. “But this is impossible,” Woland answered seriously... And further, in the scene of the murder of Baron Meigel: ... The Baron became paler than Abadonna, who was exceptionally pale by nature, and then something strange happened. Abadonna stood in front of the baron and took off his glasses for a second. At the same moment, something flashed in Azazello’s hands, something softly clapped his hands, the baron began to fall backward, scarlet blood sprayed from his chest... The Arabs believed that Azazel and Avadon were brothers. Without mentioning their relationship, Bulgakov did not separate them

Now let's turn to the most charming and desperately loved not-quite-cat by me - Behemoth, the accursed Hans, as the sir calls him. I am quoting the text of the novel again so that you cannot accuse me of lying and making false accusations.

The night also tore off the fluffy tail from the Behemoth, tore off its fur and scattered it in shreds across the swamps. The one who was a cat who amused the prince of darkness now turned out to be a thin youth, a demon page, the best jester that ever existed in the world...

It just so happened that people made the black cat an obligatory attribute of evil spirits, a fluffy symbol mentioned in all fairy tales and legends (in the same Golden Pot). However, Bulgakov immediately, this very second, by his very name makes it clear that he is still not just a cat. Of course, you and I are educated people who somehow managed to finish school, studying first zoology and then biology. And for us, a hippopotamus and a hippopotamus are one animal, huge, reaching a length of 4.5 m, and there is nothing mysterious about it. An ordinary river horse, if translated from ancient Greek, and back in the 19th century it was called the Nile horse. But Mikhail Afanasyevich writes about completely different times; after all, a novel within a novel is a biblical time; and the hippopotamus is one of the most significant animals mentioned in the Bible. And this name is translated as monsters or beasts (That cheerful beast that entertains Woland and us all. There’s just no life for him!). According to ancient, and later medieval Jewish tradition, just as leviathan was recognized as the king of fish, and ziz - the ruler of birds, hippopotamus was considered the king of beasts. This is already a cosmogonic myth; for the triad Leviathan - Behemoth - Ziz lay at the basis of the entire animal world and had eschatological significance.

The image of the demon-clown goes back to the European medieval tradition and will additionally require your attention. Because, as the master said one festive night, addressing Behemoth: For some reason it seems to me that you are not very much a cat...

Isn’t it a little strange that Woland had two jesters? The gloomy Messire demanded increased attention to his person. That is why Koroviev-Fagot ended up in his retinue.

The playful regent, the former singer in a checkered suit and cracked pince-nez, speaking in a disgustingly rattling voice, makes one think of a jester - the same outfit, the same behavior and the very name. After all, fagotin in French means jester, although this is only one of the meanings of this ambiguous word. But, it seems, what is clearer? However, even here, from the very first moment, we are haunted by mysteries. And I, your humble servant, and Behemoth, and Messire himself address Koroviev only as a knight. But this is surprising only for uninitiated people, and so that you no longer become one of them, I will continue my story and ask you for a little more attention.. It also seems surprising that sometimes, suddenly, a fake translator of a foreign language that does not need any translations The consultant begins to speak in a loud and sonorous voice. The transformation is accomplished with the help of the same moon, and now a dark purple knight with the gloomiest, never smiling face is galloping, clinking the golden chain of the reins...

Why did he change so much? - Margarita asked quietly as the wind whistled from Woland. “This knight once made a bad joke,” Woland answered, turning his face to Margarita with a quietly burning eye, “his pun, which he made when talking about light and darkness, was not entirely good.” And after that the knight had to joke a little more and longer than he expected. But tonight is the night when scores are settled. The knight paid his account and closed it!

What kind of joke is this if you had to pay for it like this? The first thing you need to draw your worthy attention to is the fact that Azazello and Behemoth in the moonlight acquire their true forms and become themselves: the first - a demon-killer, the second - a demon-page. And only Fagot remains, as he was, a knight, without changing his official status. Bassoon was in fact a knight, in that part of his fate that is unknown to you (even despite the fact that you, undoubtedly, carefully read the novel). But if you have not yet lost interest in my story, then I will allow myself to continue. Let us turn once again to the word fagotin. And here a surprise awaits us, because the second meaning of this word is branches or twigs tied into a bundle; but the third, extremely interesting thing is that he is a heretic. What kind of knightly joke about light and darkness can be considered heresy? Most likely a joke among the Albigensians. If this word already tells you a lot, then you can skip the next page and click Next (where I’ll tell you a little about myself in case someone else doesn’t know), but for the uninitiated, I still won’t take the trouble to tell the story of these knights.

A red-haired and green-eyed girl named Gella is an ordinary witch of those who arrive at the Sabbath riding on a broom. My name is mentioned in some legends in connection with Mount Brocken, which was considered the habitat of witches. Bulgakov himself kindly reminds of this through the mouth of Woland: ... I strongly suspect that this pain in the knee was left to me as a souvenir by one charming witch, whom I became intimately acquainted with in 1571 in the Brocken Mountains, at the Devil's Cathedra... Probably continue Woland’s words and telling about our meetings with him would be the height of immodesty, but I’ll tell you something. Surely you can trust and hope that my tales will not reach the brightest ears of Messire???:-) The Brocken Mountains... Goethe wrote a lot about them. This is a wonderful place: the air is filled with a variety of aromas, it is light and fresh, you want to completely dissolve in it. No human has ever set foot on these slopes. Brocken can be approachable and stern, but for welcome visitors it suddenly becomes affectionate and inviting into its sinful alcove. Nowhere is there softer and silkier grass and shady, cozy corners in which even God himself cannot see anything. Here the very atmosphere calls for sin, and no sin can be as sweet as adultery with Satan himself.

The tricks of the unclean

The forces of hell play a somewhat unusual role for them in The Master and Margarita. They do not so much lead good and decent people astray from the path of righteousness, but rather expose and punish already accomplished sinners.

At the behest of Bulgakov, evil spirits commit many different outrages in Moscow. It’s not for nothing that Woland has a riotous retinue assigned to him. It brings together specialists of different profiles: the master of mischievous tricks and pranks - the cat Behemoth, the eloquent Koroviev, who knows all the dialects and jargons - from the half-criminal high society, the gloomy Azazello, extremely inventive in the sense of kicking out various kinds of sinners from apartment No. 50, from Moscow, even with this to the next world. And, alternating, then performing two or three at a time, they create situations, sometimes creepy, as in the case of Rimsky, but more often comic, despite the destructive consequences of their actions.

Styopa Likhodeev, the director of the variety show, gets away with Woland's assistants throwing him from Moscow to Yalta. And he has a whole cartload of sins: “... in general,” Koroviev reports, speaking about Stepa in the plural, “lately they’ve been terribly piggy. They get drunk, have relationships with women, using their position, don’t do a damn thing, yes and they can’t do a damn thing, because they don’t understand anything about what they are entrusted with.

And for all this, just a forced walk to Yalta. Nikanor Ivanovich Bosom, who really doesn’t play around with currency, but still takes bribes, and Uncle Berlioz, a cunning hunter for his nephew’s Moscow apartment, and the leaders of the Entertainment Commission, typical bureaucrats and slackers, avoid too serious consequences from meeting with evil spirits. .

On the other hand, extremely severe punishments fall on those who do not steal and who do not seem to be covered with Stepa’s vices, but who have one seemingly harmless flaw. The master defines it this way: a person without a surprise inside. For the financial director of the variety show Rimsky, who is trying to invent “ordinary explanations for extraordinary phenomena,” Woland’s retinue creates such a scene of horror that in a matter of minutes he turns into a gray-haired old man with a shaking head. They are also completely merciless towards the bartender of the variety show, the very one who utters the famous words about sturgeon of the second freshness. For what? The bartender steals and cheats, but this is not his most serious vice - hoarding, the fact that he robs himself. “Something, as you please,” notes Woland, “unkindness lurks in men who avoid wine, games, the company of lovely women, and table conversation. Such people are either seriously ill or secretly hate those around them.”

But the saddest fate goes to the head of MASSOLIT, Berlioz. Berlioz's problem is the same: he is a man without imagination. But there is a special demand from him for this, because he is the head of a writers’ organization - and at the same time an incorrigible dogmatist who recognizes only clichéd truths. Raising Berlioz's severed head at the Great Ball, Woland addresses it: “Everyone will be given according to his faith...”

With seeming omnipotence, the devil carries out his judgment and reprisals in Soviet Moscow. Thus, Bulgakov gets the opportunity to arrange, even if only verbally, some kind of trial and retribution for literary scoundrels, administrative swindlers and the entire inhumane bureaucratic system, which is only subject to the judgment of the devil.

Woland's retinue in Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" is a group of key characters in the work.

All members of Woland's retinue are bright and mysterious “personalities” with their own characteristics.

Below is a description of Woland's retinue in the novel "The Master and Margarita" in the form of a table, names and a brief description of the characters. It is also indicated who the members of Woland's retinue actually are.

Who is included in Woland's retinue?

Woland's retinue includes four bright and memorable characters:

1. "Checkered" merry fellow Koroviev
2. Huge talking cat Hippopotamus
3. Fanged robber Azazello
4. Red-haired witch Gella

Description of the Woland suite in the table

The table below provides a brief description of each member of Woland's retinue:

Commentators on the novel “The Master and Margarita” have so far paid attention primarily to the literary sources of the figure of Woland; The shadow of the creator of “Faust” lived anxiously and interrogated medieval demonologists. The connection between an artistic creation and its era is complex, bizarre, multi-linear, and perhaps it is worth recalling another real source for the construction of the powerful and darkly cheerful image of Woland.

Which reader of the novel will forget the scene of mass hypnosis to which Muscovites were subjected at Variety as a result of the manipulations of a “consultant with a hoof”? In the memory of Bulgakov’s contemporaries, whom I had to question, she is associated with the figure of the hypnotist Ornaldo (N.A. Alekseev), about whom they talked a lot in Moscow in the 30s. Speaking in the foyers of cinemas and cultural centers, Ornaldo performed experiments with the public that were somewhat reminiscent of Woland's performance: he did not just guess, but made fun of and exposed. In the mid-30s he was arrested. His further fate is dark and legendary. They said that he hypnotized the investigator, left his office, walked past the guards as if nothing had happened and returned home. But then he mysteriously disappeared from view again. Life, which, perhaps, suggested something to the author, itself expanded fantastic patterns along the familiar outline of N. A. Groznov. The work of Mikhail Bulgakov: Research. Materials. Bibliography - L.: Nauka, 1991 p.25

Woland observes Bulgakov's Moscow as a researcher conducting a scientific experiment, as if he had really been sent on a business trip by the heavenly office. At the beginning of the book, fooling Berlioz, he claims that he arrived in Moscow to study the manuscripts of Herbert of Avrilak - the role of a scientist, experimenter, and magician suits him. And his powers are great: he has the privilege of punishing acts, which is in no way within the reach of the highest contemplative good.

It is easier for Margarita, who despairs of justice, to resort to the services of such a Woland. “Of course, when people are completely robbed, like you and me,” she shares with the Master, “they seek salvation from an otherworldly force.” Bulgakov's Margarita, in a mirror-inverted form, varies the story of Faust. Faust sold his soul to the devil for the sake of a passion for knowledge and betrayed the love of Margarita. In the novel, Margarita is ready to make a deal with Woland and becomes a witch for the sake of love and loyalty to the Master.

At the behest of Bulgakov, evil spirits commit many different outrages in Moscow. It’s not for nothing that Woland has a riotous retinue assigned to him. It brings together specialists of different profiles: the master of mischievous tricks and pranks - the cat Behemoth, the eloquent Koroviev, who speaks all the dialects and jargons - from semi-criminal to high-society, the gloomy Azazello, extremely inventive in the sense of kicking out various kinds of sinners from apartment No. 50, from Moscow, even from this to the next world. And then alternating, then performing two or three at a time, they create situations, sometimes creepy, as in the case of Rimsky, but more often comic, despite the destructive consequences of their actions.

The fact that Woland comes to Moscow not alone, but surrounded by his retinue is unusual for the traditional embodiment of the devil in literature. After all, Satan usually appears on his own - without accomplices. Bulgakovsky has a retinue, and a retinue in which a strict hierarchy reigns, and each has his own function. The closest to the devil in position is Koroviev-Fagot, the first in rank among demons, the main assistant of Satan. Azazello and Gella are subordinate to Bassoon. A somewhat special position is occupied by the werecat Behemoth, a favorite jester and a kind of confidant of the “prince of darkness.”

And it seems that Koroviev, aka Fagot, the eldest of the demons subordinate to Woland, who introduces himself to Muscovites as a translator for a foreign professor and a former director of a church choir, has many similarities with the traditional incarnation of a minor demon. Through the entire logic of the novel, the reader is led to the idea of ​​not judging the characters by their appearance, and the final scene of the “transformation” of evil spirits looks like a confirmation of the correctness of the guesses that arise involuntarily. Woland's henchman, only when necessary, puts on various disguises: a drunken regent, a gayer, a clever swindler. And only in the final chapters of the novel Koroviev sheds his disguise and appears before the reader as a dark purple knight with a never smiling face.

The surname Koroviev is modeled after the surname of a character in the story by A.K. Tolstoy's "Ghoul" (1841) of the state councilor Telyaev, who turns out to be a knight and a vampire. In addition, in the story by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants” has a character named Korovkin, very similar to our hero. His second name comes from the name of the musical instrument bassoon, invented by an Italian monk. The Koroviev-Fagot has some similarities with the bassoon - a long thin tube folded in three. Bulgakov's character is thin, tall and in imaginary servility, it seems, ready to fold himself three times over in front of his interlocutor (in order to then calmly harm him).

Here is his portrait: “...a transparent citizen of a strange appearance, On his small head there is a jockey cap, a checkered short jacket..., a citizen a fathom tall, but narrow in the shoulders, incredibly thin, and his face, please note, is mocking”; “...his mustache is like chicken feathers, his eyes are small, ironic and half-drunk.”

Koroviev-Fagot is a devil who emerged from the sultry Moscow air (unprecedented heat for May at the time of his appearance is one of the traditional signs of the approach of evil spirits). Woland's henchman, only when necessary, puts on various disguises: a drunken regent, a guy, a clever swindler, a sneaky translator for a famous foreigner, etc. Only in the last flight does Koroviev-Fagot become what he really is - a gloomy demon, a knight Bassoon, who knows the value of human weaknesses and virtues no worse than his master.

The werecat and Satan's favorite jester is perhaps the funniest and most memorable of Woland's retinue. The author of “The Master and Margarita” gleaned information about Behemoth from the book by M.A. Orlov’s “The History of Relations between Man and the Devil” (1904), extracts from which are preserved in the Bulgakov archive. There, in particular, the case of a French abbess who lived in the 17th century was described. and possessed by seven devils, the fifth demon being Behemoth. This demon was depicted as a monster with an elephant head, a trunk and fangs. His hands were human-shaped, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs, like those of a hippopotamus, reminded him of his name. In Bulgakov, Behemoth became a huge black werewolf cat, since black cats are traditionally considered associated with evil spirits. This is how we see him for the first time: “... on a jeweler’s pouffe, in a cheeky pose, a third person lounged, namely, a terribly sized black cat with a glass of vodka in one paw and a fork, on which he managed to pry a pickled mushroom, in the other.” Bulgakov M. A. The Master and Margarita - M.: Pan Press, 2006 p.112

The hippopotamus in the demonological tradition is the demon of the desires of the stomach. Hence his extraordinary gluttony, especially in Torgsin, when he indiscriminately swallows everything edible.

Behemoth's shootout with the detectives in apartment No. 50, his chess match with Woland, the shooting competition with Azazello - all these are purely humorous scenes, very funny and even to some extent remove the severity of the everyday, moral and philosophical problems that the novel poses to reader.

In the last flight, the transformation of this merry joker is very unusual (like most of the plot devices in this science fiction novel): “The night tore off the fluffy tail from the Behemoth, tore off its fur and scattered its shreds across the swamps. He who was a cat who amused the prince of darkness now turned out to be a thin youth, a demon page, the best jester that ever existed in the world.”

These characters in the novel, it turns out, have their own history that is not connected with biblical history. So the purple knight, as it turns out, is paying for some joke that turned out to be unsuccessful. The cat Behemoth was the personal page of the purple knight. And only the transformation of another servant of Woland does not occur: the changes that happened to Azazello did not turn him into a person, like Woland’s other companions - in the farewell flight over Moscow we see a cold and impassive demon of death.

The name Azazello was formed by Bulgakov from the Old Testament name Azazel. This is the name of the negative hero of the Old Testament book of Enoch, a fallen angel who taught people how to make weapons and jewelry. Bulgakov was probably attracted by the combination of seduction and murder in one character. It is precisely for the insidious seducer that we take “This neighbor turned out to be short, fiery red, with a fang, in starched underwear, in a good-quality striped suit, in patent leather shoes and with a bowler hat on his head. “Absolutely a robber’s face!” - thought Margarita.” But Azazello’s main function in the novel is related to violence. He throws Styopa Likhodeev out of Moscow to Yalta, expels Uncle Berlioz from the Bad Apartment, and kills the traitor Baron Meigel with a revolver. Azazello also invented the cream that he gives to Margarita. The magic cream not only makes the heroine invisible and able to fly, but also gives her a new, witch-like beauty.

In the epilogue of the novel, this fallen angel appears before us in a new guise: “Flying at the side of everyone, shining with the steel of his armor, was Azazello. The moon also changed his face. The absurd, ugly fang disappeared without a trace, and the crooked eye turned out to be false. Both of Azazello's eyes were the same, empty and black, and his face was white and cold. Now Azazello was flying in his true form, like a demon of the waterless desert, a killer demon.”

Gella is a member of Woland’s retinue, a female vampire: “I recommend my maid Gella. She is efficient, understanding, and there is no service that she cannot provide.” Bulgakov took the name “Gella” from the article “Sorcery” in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, where it was noted that in Lesvos this name was used to call untimely dead girls who became vampires after death.

The green-eyed beauty Gella moves freely through the air, thereby taking on a resemblance to a witch. Bulgakov may have borrowed the characteristic features of vampire behavior - clicking teeth and smacking his lips - from the story by A.K. Tolstoy's "Ghoul". There, a vampire girl turns her lover into a vampire with a kiss - hence, obviously, Gella’s fatal kiss for Varenukha.

Gella, the only one from Woland's retinue, is absent from the scene of the last flight. “The writer’s third wife believed that this was the result of unfinished work on “Master Margarita.” Most likely, Bulgakov deliberately removed her as the youngest member of the retinue, performing only auxiliary functions both in the Variety Theater, and in the Bad Apartment, and at Satan’s Great Ball. Vampires are traditionally the lowest category of evil spirits. In addition, Gella would have no one to turn into on the last flight - when the night “exposed all the deceptions,” she could only become a dead girl again.

Woland did not come to earth alone. He was accompanied by creatures who play the role of jesters in the novel, putting on all sorts of shows, disgusting and hateful to the indignant Moscow population (they simply turned human vices and weaknesses inside out). But their task was also to do all the “dirty” work for Woland, to serve him, for example, to prepare Margarita for the Great Ball and for her and the Master’s journey to a world of peace. Woland's retinue consisted of three "main" jesters - Behemoth the Cat, Koroviev-Fagot, Azazello and the vampire girl Gella. Where did such strange creatures come from in Woland’s retinue? And where did Bulgakov get their images and names from?

Let's start with Behemoth. This is a werecat and Woland's favorite jester. Bulgakov apparently gleaned information about Behemoth from the research of I.Ya. Porfiryev and M.A. Orlova. In these works, Behemoth is a sea monster, as well as a demon, which “was depicted as a monster with an elephant head, a trunk and fangs. His hands were human-shaped, and his huge belly, short tail and thick hind legs, like those of a hippopotamus, reminded him of his name.” In Bulgakov, Behemoth became a huge werecat, and the real prototype of Behemoth was the domestic cat L.E. and M.A. Bulgakov Flyushka is a huge gray animal. In the novel he is black, because... represents evil spirits.

During the last flight, Behemoth turns into a thin young page boy flying next to the purple knight (transformed Koroviev-Fagot).

In the demonological tradition, Behemoth is the demon of the desires of the stomach. Hence the extraordinary gluttony of Behemoth in Torgsin. So Bulgakov makes fun of the visitors of the currency store, including himself (it’s as if people were possessed by the demon Behemoth, and they are in a hurry to buy delicacies, while outside the capitals the population lives from hand to mouth).

The hippopotamus in the novel mostly jokes and fools around, which reveals Bulgakov’s truly sparkling humor, and also causes confusion and fear in many people with its unusual appearance (at the end of the novel it is he who burns down apartment No. 50, “Griboyedov” and Torgsin).

Koroviev-Fagot is the eldest of the demons subordinate to Woland, his first assistant, a devil and a knight, who introduces himself to Muscovites as a translator for a foreign professor and a former regent of a church choir. Bulgakov's character is thin, tall and in imaginary servility, it seems, ready to fold himself three times over in front of his interlocutor (in order to then calmly harm him).

In the last flight, Koroviev-Fagot appears before us as a dark purple knight with a gloomy, never smiling face. He rested his chin on his chest, he did not look at the moon, he was not interested in the earth beneath him, he was thinking about something of his own, flying next to Woland.

Why did he change so much? - Margarita asked quietly as the wind whistled from Woland.

“This knight once made a bad joke,” Woland answered, turning his face to Margarita, with a quietly burning eye, “his pun, which he made when talking about light and darkness, was not entirely good. And the knight had to joke a little more and longer than he expected...

Tattered, tasteless circus clothes, buffoonish manners - this is the punishment given to the nameless knight for making a pun about light and darkness!

Azazello - “demon of the waterless desert, demon killer.” The name Azazello was formed by Bulgakov from the Old Testament name Azazel (or Azazel). This is the name of the negative hero of the Old Testament apocrypha - the book of Enoch, the fallen angel who taught people how to make weapons and jewelry. Thanks to Azazel, women mastered the “lascivious art” of painting their faces. Therefore, it is Azazello who gives Margarita a cream that magically changes her appearance. Bulgakov was probably attracted by the combination of seduction and murder in one character. It is precisely for the insidious seducer that Margarita mistakes Azazello during their first meeting in the Alexander Garden. But Azazello's main function is related to violence. Here are the words that he said to Margarita: “Punching the administrator in the face, or kicking my uncle out of the house, or shooting someone, or some other trifle of that kind, this is my direct specialty...” Explaining these words, I will say, that Azazello threw Stepan Bogdanovich Likhodeev out of Moscow to Yalta, kicked out Uncle M.A. from the Bad Apartment. Berlioz Poplavsky, killed Baron Meigel with a revolver.

Gella is the youngest member of Woland's retinue, a female vampire. Bulgakov took the name “Gella” from the article “Sorcery” in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, where it was noted that in Lesvos this name was used to call untimely dead girls who became vampires after death. Bulgakov may have borrowed the characteristic features of the behavior of vampires - clicking teeth and smacking their lips from A. K. Tolstoy's story "The Ghoul", where the main character is threatened with death by ghouls (vampires). Here, a vampire girl turns her lover into a vampire with a kiss - hence, obviously, Gella’s fatal kiss for Varenukha. She, the only one from Woland's retinue, is absent in the scene of the last flight. The third wife of the writer E.S. Bulgakova believed that this was the result of unfinished work on “The Master and Margarita.” Some critics explain the absence of Gella by the insignificance of the image in revealing the ideological content of the work.

There is no doubt that “The Master and Margarita” is Bulgakov’s best work. “This... is his final work in relation to everything that he wrote, as if summing up the writer’s thoughts about the meaning of life, about man, about his mortality, about the struggle between good and evil principles in history and the moral world of man,” writes G. . Lesskis in the article “Bulgakov’s last novel”.

Everyone gets what they have suffered - this is how we can consider the ending of the novel. “Forgiven on Sunday night... the cruel fifth procurator of Judea, the horseman Pontius Pilate,” leaves along the lunar path, talking with Yeshua. “Someone” released the Master “to freedom”, giving him and Margarita not Heavenly, but his own and Margarita’s paradise - complete peace. Ivan Bezdomny, having become a professor of philosophy and history without a pseudonym, knows what he wants to know, suffering and doubting only on the day of the full moon. But for Bulgakov himself, the “manuscripts” still “do not burn.” This truth for a writer has been time-tested through the example of his works.

Questions and assignments for the topic

1. What is the meaning of the dispute between Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate?

2. Why was Pontius Pilate punished and when did his moral insight occur? Why was he still granted forgiveness?

3. For what purpose does Woland visit Moscow? Why does he conduct a “black magic” session at Variety? What conclusion does he come to? How does this relate to the philosophical meaning of the novel?

4. What forces, from the point of view of M.A. Bulgakov, determine the destinies of people and world history? What underlies human actions: chance, coincidence, predestination, or adherence to eternal moral principles and ideals?

5. Many literary scholars agree that the image of the Master is autobiographical. Find similarities between the author and the hero in the novel. What is their difference?

6. Why Woland chose Margarita and she became the “queen of the spring full moon ball, or the ball of a hundred kings”: because of her “exorbitant beauty”, because she is the “lovely great-great-great-granddaughter” of one of the “French queens who lived in the sixteenth century” "or for some other reasons?

7. Write an essay on the topic “The concept of time in the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita".

8. Make a thesis plan for the essay “True and imaginary freedom in the novel “The Master and Margarita.”