The Master and Margarita: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''I am part of that force which wills forever evil and works forever good.''

 

''Would you remove all trees and living things from the world to realise your fantasy of basking in naked light?''|'''Woland'''}}

First of all, this has nothing to do with any of the Masters from certain [[Doctor Who|television]] [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|shows]], which the novel predates by more than twenty years. And now that we have established that, let's move on.

 

 

The main plot nominally follows [[Satan]], who arrives with his [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] in 1930s Moscow under the guise of a foreign Professor of the occult, Woland. His true intent is to host a periodic carnival of the dead. Much of the humor and social satire in the novel is derived from Woland and his henchmen exposing the numb-skulled bureaucratic officiousness of Soviet society. He is not truly evil, but some of his pranks prove humiliating to the faux aristocracy of the Soviet Union.

 

Among Russian critics, this novel is one of the most favorite targets of the [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory]] syndrome, although a story featuring both Jesus and Satan as characters arguably had it coming. It has also seen a lot of adaptations, two of them in Russia (after the fall of the Soviet Union) and plenty abroad. The 2005 miniseries by Vladimir Bortko (famous for a massively popular 1988 adaptation of Bulgakov's earlier ''[[Heart of a Dog]]'') was perhaps the most faithful to the original text, although it was somewhat of a disappointment on the technical side, particularly in regards to questionable casting choices.

* [[A-Team Firing]]: During a showdown between Behemoth and the Moscow police, a firefight ensues in which ''nobody'' gets injured - in a ''tiny room''. However, Behemoth's terrible marksmanship is established in an earlier scene when he tries to show off.

* [[Action Girl]]: Margarita, after her transformation into a witch.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Particularly to [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]'s drama of ''[[Faust]]''.

* [[Show Within a Show]]: The Master's novel.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Lots of bureaucrats and high-ranking functionaries in the Moscow storylines, Caifas in the Jerusalem storyline.

* [[Sympathy for the Devil]]: Literally - it's ''this'' book which inspired the Rolling Stones song, after all.

 

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[[Category:School Study Media]]

[[Category:Small Genres and Unclassified Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]