57 pages • 1 hour read
Mikhail BulgakovThe Master and Margarita
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1967A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Deals With the Devil
The Master and Margarita begins with an epigraph quoting Faust, a play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Faust is a retelling of a traditional story in which Faust (also known as Dr. Faustus) sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. The story of Faust is the foundation of the idea of a Faustian pact or bargain, in which a character trades something of metaphysical importance (such as their soul) for material wealth or power. The Master and Margarita plays with the traditional interpretation of the Faustian pact. In The Master and Margarita, the devil visits the real world and makes agreements with the characters.
However, the novel diverges from the Faust story in that the character who makes a deal with the devil is not punished. Rather than swapping a soul for power and knowledge before discovering the tragic implications of this bargain, Margarita uses her deal with the devil to illustrate her innate morality. When presented with the option to ask for anything from Woland in exchange for working as the hostess at his party, Margarita asks for Frieda to be forgiven and released from her eternal torment. Margarita inverts the traditional dynamic of the Faustian pact. Rather than being punished for her choice or having the pact reveal her inherent selfishness, her deal with Woland illustrates that Margarita is a good person who is willing to sacrifice her own happiness for others.
Woland visits Moscow to gain an understanding of the changing nature of the city. He interrogates the changes in the city by talking to people and punishing those who fail to live up to his moral standards. The board of directors at the Variety Theater, for example, meet with Woland (or his representatives) individually. None of them are willing to make a sacrifice similar to Margarita and their lives are spent perpetuating the corrupt bureaucracy that Woland comes to believe defines Moscow at the time of his visit. Similarly, his conversation with Berlioz offers the atheistic writer many opportunities to reconsider his beliefs. Berlioz refuses and he is punished as a result. Ivan, alternatively, sees his friend murdered after talking to Woland and eventually changes his views on the nature of the world. Ivan shows how an encounter with Woland and his powers can change a person’s perspective, providing a similar Faustian bargain in which Ivan can swap his steadfast beliefs for enlightenment so long as he is humble enough to admit that he was wrong.
Enduring Love
For all the satire and philosophy in The Master and Margarita, love is the central theme. The enduring romance between the Master and Margarita lends the novel its title and illustrates the way in which love can endure beyond tragedy, the supernatural, and even death. The Master and Margarita fall in love at first sight, but they face many obstacles to realizing their love. They are both married, so they can only be together in secret. Once the Master is shamed and ostracized by the Moscow literary community, he no longer feels himself worthy of Margarita’s love, so he commits himself to an asylum without her knowledge. Despite the two characters taking separate paths, their love endures. Neither ever questions their love for the other. Margarita is willing to make a deal with the devil based on the slight possibility he may be able to reunite her with the Master. Later, the Master makes the same deal. Their love endures beyond the confines of traditional morality, as they are both adulterers who deal with the devil. However, their love endures because of its sincerity and its purity. In a novel filled with absurdity and satire, the love between the Master and Margarita exists beyond the realms of parody. Their love endures because it is sincere.
The Master and Margarita are permitted to live together forever. To facilitate this, they must die. They die at the same time, and they are led to a place where they will be able to exist in peace. Their love takes on an eternal aspect that befits its sincerity. In fact, their love is almost transcendent: they die, but they go to neither heaven nor hell. Instead, the Master and Margarita are sent to a place outside the traditional Christian dichotomy of the afterlife. Their love endures beyond death in such a way that they are neither rewarded nor punished. They are turned into a universal constant that endures beyond the normal scope of humanity, morality, and religion. Not only is their love sincere, but it is powerful enough to defy death itself.
The title characters are not the only ones who experience love. Most people who meet Yeshua feel a burning, enduring love for him even if this love is platonic. After one meeting with the condemned Yeshua, Pilate is so haunted by his interaction that he spends two thousand years staring at the moon and ruminating on his actions. Levi Matvei is not responsible for the death of Yeshua; he did not sign the execution order, wield the spear, or betray Yeshua. However, he feels such an intense love for Yeshua that he blames himself for Yeshua’s death. Both Pilate and Levi illustrate an enduring love that—like the Master and Margarita—goes beyond life. Levi is an associate and representative of Yeshua in death while Pilate is eventually accepted into heaven with Yeshua.
Absurd Bureaucracy
The Master and Margarita parodies the bureaucracy and administrative systems of the Soviet Union. In the novel, bureaucrats are corrupt and ineffective managers who contribute little to society other than to bicker with one another over apartments and privileges. The board of directors at the Variety Theater are heavy drinkers who have no interest in art or theater beyond polishing their own reputation and taking any bribes they are offered. At the various commissions in Moscow, bureaucrats are meticulous adherents to meaningless systems of paperwork and control that do nothing to help people and cannot be navigated. At one stage, one of these bureaucrats is magically replaced by an empty suit that continues to sign documents as the rest of the office runs around in a terrified panic. The image of the empty suit at the large desk with the large inkwell is a satirical comment on the nature of the bureaucracy itself. The people involved are as empty as the suits, and their actions are similarly meaningless gestures. Meanwhile, the real workers are terrified by their bosses but unable to explain or describe the hollowness they witness in the system.
Woland’s arrival in the city exposes the absurdity of the bureaucracy. Woland and his retinue approach those who are involved in the corruption, and they specifically challenge people to prove their worthiness. They talk to directors, managers, and administrators, offering bribes and backhanders to avoid bureaucratic processes. When their targets accept the bribes, Woland and his retinue punish them. In this sense, Woland is satisfying his role as the arbiter of sin. He is Satan, tempting the people of Moscow and punishing them when they commit sins. However, the ubiquity of the sin becomes a satirical comment on the society. With so few people avoiding temptation, Woland comes to believe that the entire city and system is corrupt. The more he becomes disillusioned with the city, the more absurd and dramatic his response. Eventually, Roland and his retinue burn down parts of the city as a punishment for the corruption, tearing down the bureaucratic systems they believe trap people inside.
Simultaneously, the novel describes an ever-present danger in the system. The novel was not published during Bulgakov’s lifetime. Given the authoritative, oppressive nature of the society under Joseph Stalin, criticism and parody of the government could constitute a very serious offence. The characters in the novel are aware of the same problems Bulgakov faced; Ivan and Berlioz, for example, refrain from criticizing the society and mention that someone could be punished by being sent to the gulag (forced labor camps) system that proliferated in Russia at this time. For all the absurdity of the society, the bureaucracy is threatening and violent. Characters must carefully guard their words for fear of being punished.
