Senior Project Advisor

Vajda, Edward J.

Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Summer 2005

Keywords

The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov, Allegory

Abstract

The Master and Margarita is a strange, dense work. Oddly enough, I first read it years ago in the seventh grade; I was the unwitting victim of a family friend who thought he’d quiet my clamor for a good book with Bulgakov’s novel. I loved it. It was a much longer read then, and I remember a keen sense of wanting the novel to continue in perpetuity; it was so unlike anything I had ever read. At the time I was completely absorbed in fantasy literature of the knights-and-dragons type, and The Master and Margarita caught hold of my interest with particular force because it combined elements of fantasy with a real-world setting. I understood the novel on a superficial level (which is enough to justify reading it), and was completely unaware of anti-Soviet satire or other historical references. My knowledge of Soviet History was practically non-existent. Being raised outside of any organized religion, the chapters set in Old Jerusalem were a curiosity to me, and because Bulgakov purposefully employs alternate transliterations the names of Christ, Judas, etc., I was hardly aware that I was reading his rendering of the crucifixion, and even if I had been, I would not have been able to make a mental comparison with the biblical account. I had not the faintest idea who Pontius Pilate was. That the author was making a deeper, more serious point, escaped me, but I had an intense appreciation for the narrator’s ironic and sarcastic tone, and even as a seventh- grader I could appreciate a band of characters wreaking havoc among bureaucrats.

Department

English

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Bulgakov, Mikhail, 1891-1940--Political and social views; Bulgakov, Mikhail, 1891-1940. Master i Margarita

Genre/Form

student projects; term papers

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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