Which of the heroes of M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” becomes a victim of Woland’s retinue and why

In the work of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, the generalized image of the lord of the dark forces is represented by the character of Woland. Traditionally, such a character in literary works personifies the absolute embodiment of evil. But like the rest of the main characters of the work, the image of Woland in Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” is very ambiguous.

Features of creating an image

Bulgakov's novel is built in two chronological planes and locations: Soviet Moscow and Ancient Jerusalem. The compositional concept of the novel is also interesting: a work within a work. However, Woland is present in all compositional planes.

So, a mysterious stranger arrives in Soviet Moscow in the spring of 1935. “He was wearing an expensive gray suit, foreign-made shoes that matched the color of the suit... under his arm he carried a cane with a black knob in the shape of a poodle’s head. He looks like he's about forty years old... The right eye is black, the left one is green for some reason. The eyebrows are black, but one is higher than the other. In a word - a foreigner." Bulgakov gives this description of Woland in the novel.

He presented himself as a foreign professor, an artist in the field of magic tricks and sorcery, to some heroes and, in particular, to the reader, he reveals his true face - the lord of darkness. However, it is difficult to call Woland the personification of absolute evil, because in the novel he is characterized by mercy and just actions.

Muscovites through the eyes of guests

Why does Woland come to Moscow? He tells the writers that he came to work on the manuscripts of an ancient warlock, the administration of the variety show - to perform sessions of black magic, Margarita - to hold a spring ball. Professor Woland's answers are different, as are his names and guises. Why did the prince of darkness actually come to Moscow? Perhaps, he gave a sincere answer only to the head of the variety show buffet, Sokov. The purpose of his visit was that he wanted to see the city’s residents en masse, and for this purpose he tripled the performance.

Woland wanted to see whether humanity had changed over the centuries. “People are like people. They love money, but that’s always been the case... Well, they’re frivolous... well, well... ordinary people... in general, they resemble the old ones... the housing problem only spoiled them...,” this is the portrait of Muscovites through the eyes of the character.

The role of Woland's retinue

In assessing society, establishing order and retribution, the lord of the shadows is helped by his faithful confidants. In fact, he himself does nothing wrong, but only makes fair decisions. Like every king, he has a retinue. However, Koroviev, Azazello and Behemoth look more like tamed jesters than faithful servants. The only exception is the image of Gella.

The author masterfully experiments in creating confidants of the demonic ruler. Traditionally, dark characters are portrayed as scary, evil, frightening, and Woland’s retinue in Bulgakov’s novel is full of jokes, irony, and puns. The author uses a similar artistic technique to emphasize the absurdity of the situations into which Muscovites drive themselves, as well as to highlight Woland’s seriousness and wisdom against the background of his buffoonish surroundings.

Personification of omnipotence

Mikhail Bulgakov introduced the character of Woland into the system of characters as an evaluative and decisive force. The unlimited possibilities of his capabilities become clear from the first moments of his stay in Moscow. Margarita also admits this when he gave her the happiness of being close to her lover again. Thus, the essence of Woland’s characteristics in the novel “The Master and Margarita” is his omnipotence and limitless possibilities.

Although the tricks of Satan and his retinue are terrible, all troubles with people happen only through their own fault. This is the inconsistency of Bulgakov's Satan. Evil comes not from him, but from the people themselves. He only noted the numerous sins of the townspeople and punished them according to their deserts. Using the image of Woland, through the prism of those mysterious and inexplicable events that happened to Muscovites during the period of dark forces in the city, the author showed a satirical portrait of his contemporary society.

Justice of actions

During his stay in Moscow, Woland managed to meet many future inhabitants of his dark other world. These are imaginary representatives of art, thinking only about apartments, dachas and material gain, and catering workers who steal and sell expired products, and corrupt administration, and relatives who are ready to rejoice at the death of a loved one for the opportunity to receive an inheritance, and low people who, having learned about the death colleagues continue to eat, because the food gets cold, and a dead man doesn’t care anyway.

Greed, deceit, hypocrisy, bribery, betrayal were cruelly but fairly punished. However, Woland forgave the characters who retained a pure heart and soul for their mistakes, and even rewarded some. So, together with Woland’s retinue, the Master and Margarita leave the earthly world with its problems, suffering and injustice.

The meaning of Woland's image

The meaning of Woland's character is to show people their own sins. One who does not know the difference between good and evil cannot be good. Light can only be shaded by shadow, as Woland asserts in a conversation with Levi Matvey. Can Woland's justice be considered kindness? No, he just tried to show people their mistakes. Whoever managed to become sincere and honest with himself and others was not touched by Satan’s revenge. However, it was not he who changed Bezdomny or Rimsky. They themselves changed, because in their souls light conquered darkness.

Margarita’s actions and the Master’s weakness did not allow them to be transported into the light, but for their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their loved one and true art, Woland grants them eternal peace in his kingdom of darkness. Thus, one cannot say that in the novel he is the embodiment of absolute evil, and certainly one should not associate him with good. The role of Woland and his actions is explained by justice. He came to Moscow as a kind of mirror, and those who truly have a kind heart were able to examine their mistakes in it and draw conclusions.

Work test

(essay based on the novel by M.A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”)

Several years ago I read the famous novel by the greatest Russian writer of the 20th century, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, “The Master and Margarita.” “Oh, what a novel!” — I thought then. Indeed, the great work of the great writer was fascinating, and most importantly, philosophical. You know, I don’t like literary works where there is a very fascinating plot, but there is no internal meaning. And in “The Master and Margarita” there is both. What also attracted me then was the fact that here philosophy is not imposed, as for example in Tolkien, but is present in the “author’s” text, in the actions of the heroes and often comes out of the mouths of Woland, the Master, Bassoon Margarita, etc. .

In the novel, the character whose name is Woland is the devil. Some people believe that the novel is not about the Master and Margarita, but simply about the devil. And indeed, we know that the first titles of the novel are “Astaroth”, “Black Magician”, “Prince of Darkness” and others, but not “The Master and Margarita” or even “Creativity and Love”. It was originally conceived and created as a “novel about the devil.”

Woland in some cases remains traditional. Yes, he is the leader of the hierarchy of evil. He is very similar to Mephistopheles from Goethe’s “Faust” - both of them are not god-fighters, they are both not man-killers. Both devils are close to God. Mephistopheles is, as it were, a “friend” of God, God considers his words not hateful to Him, but at the same time, Goethe’s devil is the opposite and tempter of Faust, and he believes that he “destroyed” him, although in reality it is completely different. But Woland, the omniscient, cunning Woland is much more developed than Mephistopheles. He does not remain a fool like Goethe's Satan. Oh no, Woland has access to something that his predecessor does not have - an understanding of the higher and deeper forces that decide the fate of the world.

I can name several examples of the unconventionality of this image. Firstly, Woland is not terrible, not disgusting and not disgusting, although his description, to put it mildly, is not very pleasant. Secondly, in the novel no one, absolutely no one, sold their soul to the devil. And the contract with Margarita was a fair contract, no one deceived anyone, and she did not receive a sin on her soul in this way. Thirdly, Woland is not a destroyer of beauty, he is not associated with the gloomy grandeur of despondency, with death. Fourthly, Woland is a judge, he punishes sinners for FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH CHRISTIAN MORALITY. Fifthly, Woland is endowed with the attributes of God: he is omniscient, can resurrect the dead, etc. Bulgakov understood that if there is no good, there will be no evil, if there is no evil, there will be no good. These two poles have always lived, exist now and will forever. Sixthly, Woland has a retinue, and earlier in literature and mythology the Devil, although he had minions (witches, sorcerers), had never before been with his personal retinue.

Woland appears in all editions of the novel in the first chapter. (You will be very surprised, but I have read all the surviving editions). However, his image is always unclear and controversial. Who is Woland really? For Ivan Bezdomny - a poor poet who later became a historian - he is a foreign spy, for Berlioz - a professor of history, a crazy foreigner, for Styopa Likhodeev - a “black magician”, for a master - a literary character. Woland informs the homeless man and Berlioz that he came to Moscow to study the manuscripts of Herbert of Avrilak. To many Muscovites he introduces himself as an artist who has come on tour; he “admits” to the bartender Sokov that he just wanted to see Muscovites. The true purpose of his visit becomes known only before the Ball: it is that Woland and his retinue intend to organize the next Great Ball at Satan's. There is no doubt that Woland makes a lot of sense in the structure of the novel; he seems to hold together all parts of the novel, including the Moscow events with the Yershalaim ones.

His portrait gives us a double idea of ​​the hero. Reports describing it have been and are giving conflicting data. And his entire portrait is clearly divided into two halves: “...on the left side he had platinum crowns, and on the right - gold”, “black eyebrows, one higher than the other”, different eyes: “left, green, he has absolutely mad, and the one on the right is empty, black and dead,” the gray beret is twisted to one side. Even opinions about him differ: “...from the very first words the foreigner made a disgusting impression on the poet, but Berlioz rather liked it, that is, not that he liked it, but... how to put it - he became interested, or something.”

Woland got his name from Goethe's Mephistopheles. In the poem “Faust” it sounds only once, when Mephistopheles asks the evil spirits to part and give him way: “The nobleman Woland is coming!” In ancient German literature, the devil was called by another name - Faland. It also appears in The Master and Margarita, when the Variety employees cannot remember the name of the magician: “ ...Perhaps Faland?- they asked. Bulgakov searched for a long time for a name for the devil; various names were considered, for example, Azazello (later became the name of one of the members of Woland’s retinue). By the way, in a conversation with Bezdomny and Berlioz, Woland admits that he “ probably German..." With this, he again seems to be making a footnote to Goethe’s hero.

I absolutely love this novel and by the way, I recently started reading it again. I watched the TV series again. I never cease to be amazed at Bulgakov's talent. It’s not hard to guess which image, or rather which images, I like the most. This, of course, is Woland and his retinue. I like them for their fairness. Undoubtedly, He is just, for He punishes sinners, although He should not. He and his retinue help those who really need help (that is, Margarita and the Master). Yes, of course, Woland is the devil, He is the same Evil One who is blamed for all the vices of people. And in the novel the devil is blamed for the same thing: he allegedly deceives ordinary Muscovites, he is a liar, a cunning person, and so on. Oh no, of course that's not true. Woland just shows vices, reveals them... Although, as Azazello, aka Fiello, said, “insult is a common reward for good work” And in his own words, “Wake up!” And on this sad note, I, a young philosopher from the village, finish my essay. I’d rather finish in the tradition of Bulgakov: and no one will disturb me now. “Neither the noseless murderer of Gestas, nor the cruel fifth procurator of Judea, the horseman Pontius Pilate.”

7th grade

Municipal educational institution "Starokurmashevskaya secondary school", Aktanysh municipal district, Republic of Tatarstan

Work:

Master and Margarita

In this hero, Bulgakov created a very unique image of Satan. This is not absolute evil. V. came to Moscow to judge. And it is important to note that not a single innocent person was harmed. At the very beginning of the novel, when V. appears on the Patriarch's Ponds, he is holding a cane with a poodle's head on the handle. The black poodle is the sign of Satan.

V.'s appearance is very remarkable. He has different eyes: “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...”. V.’s face is somewhat slanted to the side, “the right corner of the mouth is pulled down,” his skin is very dark.

V. is wise, his philosophy is extremely interesting. We can say that he does not do evil, he does justice, but in his own, devilish ways. But he also does good deeds. For example, it is V. who helps Margarita find the Master again in gratitude for the fact that she was the queen at his ball. He frees these heroes from the burden of life in this reality and rewards them with peace. These people do not deserve the light, so Yeshua cannot take them to himself. And Satan can also give you peace. V. says that darkness and light are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other. These concepts are interrelated. Bulgakov conveyed the image of a very wise and charming Devil. He should not be feared by those who have a completely clear conscience.

Woland is a character in the novel “The Master and Margarita”, who leads the world of otherworldly forces. Woland is the devil, Satan, “prince of darkness,” “spirit of evil and lord of shadows” (all these definitions are found in the text of the novel). Woland is largely inspired by Mephistopheles in Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust. The name Woland itself is taken from Goethe’s poem, where it is mentioned only once and is usually omitted in Russian translations. As amended 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. Let us note that in early editions Bulgakov tried the names Azazello and Veliar for the future Woland.

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.”

Bulgakov hides Woland’s true face only at the very beginning of the novel in order to intrigue the reader, 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 in relation to the view of the devil, which was defended in the book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth” by the philosopher and theologian P.A. Florensky: “Sin is fruitless, because it is not life, but death. And death drags out its ghostly existence only life and about Life, feeds from Life and exists only insofar as Life gives it nourishment from itself. What death has is only the life it has spoiled. Even at the “black mass”, in the very nest of the devil, the Devil and his fans could not come up with anything other than to blasphemously parody the mysteries of the liturgy, doing everything the other way around. What emptiness! What beggary! What flat “depths”!”

WOLAND is the central character of M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” (1928-1940), the devil who appeared at the “hour of hot spring sunset on the Patriarch’s Ponds” to celebrate “the great ball of Satan” here in Moscow; which, as it should be, became the cause of many extraordinary events that caused turmoil in the peaceful life of the city and caused a lot of anxiety to its inhabitants.

In the process of creating the novel, the image of V. played a key role. This character was the starting point of the artistic concept, which then underwent many changes. The future novel about the Master and Margarita began as a “novel about the devil” (Bulgakov’s words from his letter to the “Government of the USSR”, 1930). In the early editions, V., who had not yet found his name, called either Herr Faland or Azazel, was the main person placed at the center of the narrative. This is indicated by almost all variants of the title of the novel, noted in manuscripts from 1928 to 1937: “Black Magician”, “Engineer’s Hoof”, “Consultant with a Hoof”, “Satan”, “Black Theologian”, “Great Chancellor”, “Prince of Darkness”, etc. As the “distance of the free novel” expanded (the “ancient” line developed, the Master and Margarita appeared, as well as many other people), V. lost his function as a hero. In the “final” edition, he was pushed out of the main roles and became the tritagonist of the plot, after the Master and Margarita, after Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate. Having lost his supremacy in the hierarchy of images, V. nevertheless retained obvious primacy in terms of plot presence. He appears in fifteen chapters of the novel, while the Master appears in only five, and Yeshua in only two chapters.

The author took the name V. from Goethe’s Faust: Mephistopheles’ exclamation “Plate! Junker Voland kommt" (“The road! - the devil is coming!”; translation by N.A. Kholodkovsky; scene “Walpurgis Night”). The source of the image for Bulgakov was M.N. Orlov’s book “The History of Relations between Man and the Devil” (1904), as well as articles about Satan, about demonology in the “Encyclopedic Dictionary” of Brockhaus and Efron. In the image of the devil, the writer used some traditional attributes, emblems, portraits descriptions: lameness, squint, crooked mouth, black eyebrows - one higher than the other, a cane with a knob in the shape of a poodle's head, a beret, famously twisted over the ear, though without a feather, and so on. Nevertheless, Bulgakovsky's V. differs significantly from the images of Satan captured by the artistic tradition. Research shows that these differences intensified from one edition to another. “Early” V. was much closer to the traditional type of tempter, catcher of human souls. He committed sacrilege and demanded blasphemous acts from others. In the “final” version, these points disappeared. Bulgakov interprets the provocation of the devil in a unique way. Traditionally, Satan is called upon to provoke everything dark lurking in a person’s soul, to kindle it, as it were. The meaning of V.'s provocations is the study of people as they really are. A session of black magic in a variety theater (a classic provocation) revealed both the bad (greed) and the good in the audience gathered there, showing that mercy sometimes knocks on people's hearts. The last conclusion, murderous for Satan, does not offend Bulgakovsky at all.

Messire V., as his retinue respectfully calls him, consisting of the lomaki-regent Koroviev, Fagot, the demon Azazello, the cat Behemoth and the witch Gella, is by no means a fighter against God and not an enemy of the human race. Contrary to the orthodox interpretation, which denies the devil the truth, for “he is a lie and the father of lies” (John, VII, 44), V. is involved in the truth. He certainly distinguishes between good and evil: usually Satan is a relativist for whom these concepts are relative. Moreover, V. is endowed with the power to punish people for the evil they have committed; He himself does not slander anyone, but he punishes slanderers and informers.

Throughout the novel, V. does not try to capture souls. He doesn’t need the souls of the Master and Margarita, to whom he showed so much selfless concern. Strictly speaking, V. is not the devil (Greek §1phoHo^ means “scattering”), understood as an evil will that separates people. V. decisively intervenes in the fate of the Master and Margarita, separated by the will of circumstances, unites them and finds them “eternal shelter.” Bulgakov outlined such an obvious crime of the devil’s powers in the epigraph of the novel, taken from Goethe’s Faust: “I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good.”

The philosophical and religious source of the image of V. was the dualistic teaching of the Manichaeans (III-XI centuries), according to which God and the devil act in the world, in the words of the novel, each according to his own department. God commands the heavenly spheres, the devil rules on earth, administering fair judgment. This is indicated, in particular, by V.’s scene with a globe, on which he sees everything that is happening in the world. Traces of the Manichaean doctrine are clearly found in V.’s dialogue with Matthew Levi on the roof of Pashkov’s house. In the early edition, the decision on the fate of the Master and Margarita came to V. in the form of an order, which was brought by an “unknown messenger” who appeared under the rustle of flying wings. In the final version, Matthew Levi conveys a request to reward the Master and his beloved with peace. The two worlds, light and shadow, thus became equal.

Which has been exciting the minds of readers since 1967. Adult fans of the mystical writer reread this novel, each time discovering new horizons of the work, and the younger generation plunges into the pages of the manuscript in order to follow the antics of Messire and his retinue: Gella, Azazello, Behemoth and Koroviev. Mikhail Afanasyevich managed to create amazing images that make you think:

“So what is that part of that force that always wants evil and always does good?”

History and prototypes

Bulgakov was both a skilled doctor and prose writer, and a mysterious man. The veil of mystery that shrouds the writer’s biography haunts scientists trying to piece together all the facts. Therefore, the question of when Mikhail Afanasyevich came up with “The Master and Margarita” remains open, but literary scholars agree that the rough sketches were made in 1928–1929.

Moreover, in Mikhail Afanasyevich’s debut notes there was no love story between the nameless writer in a black cap and the woman who carried “disgusting yellow flowers.” Initially, the genius began to scrupulously collect information about the devil: in a special notebook he kept torn pages from dictionaries, essays by Mikhail Orlov and excerpts from works that describe evil spirits.

In 1930, Bulgakov received a refusal from the General Repertoire Committee: the letter stated that the play “The Cabal of the Holy One” (1929) was not allowed to be presented in the theater, so Mikhail Afanasyevich angrily threw his notes about Lucifer into the oven. But, as we know, “manuscripts don’t burn,” so most of the passages, namely two thick notebooks with torn sheets, survived.

In 1932, Mikhail Afanasyevich again returned to his idea and sat down to write a novel, without using the author’s lyricism. True, Bulgakov relied on a classic biblical plot and made the devil a tempter and provocateur, while in the final version Woland acts as a witness and observer. In 1940, Bulgakov’s health began to deteriorate sharply: the literary genius was diagnosed with kidney disease.

Mikhail Afanasyevich found himself bedridden and, overcoming severe pain, dictated excerpts from the work to his wife Elena Sergeevna: about the adventures of Koroviev, the journey of Styopa Likhodeev and cloudless days at Griboedov and the Variety Theater.

The novel was published only in 1966 (67), the writer’s widow edited the manuscript for about twenty years. Woland became one of the most striking and memorable characters. This hero does not have a true prototype, because the image of a black magician is collective. The writer himself said:

“I don’t want to give amateurs a reason to look for prototypes. Woland doesn’t have any prototypes.”

Mikhail Bulgakov called Messire the main opponent of the heavenly forces - Satan. At least, the analogy with the religious personification of evil seems obvious to researchers. In addition, the writer relied on his predecessor, the German poet, who gave this world “Faust”: during his childhood in Kyiv, Bulgakov enjoyed listening to the opera of the same name by Charles Gounod.

In fact, Woland has similarities with Goethe's evil spirit, moreover, a reference to this character is present in the epigraph of the novel and the 29th chapter, when the professor of black magic sits on a stone terrace, resting his sharp chin on his fist and preparing to part with Moscow. This reveals a similarity with the sculpture “Mephistopheles”, made of marble by Mark Antokolsky. And the master in the first editions was called Faust.

Since the timing for a full-length film was clearly not enough, Vladimir Vladimirovich created a mini-series. The role of Woland went to. The actor's appearance does not fit the description, but Oleg Valerianovich brilliantly played a supporter of the forces of darkness.

It is noteworthy that initially the role of Messire was supposed to go to , but the artist did not tempt fate and abandoned this image. Bortko also considered Klaus Maria Brandauer. In addition to Basilashvili, the following characters played in the series: , and .

Quotes

“Never ask for anything! Never and nothing, and especially among those who are stronger than you. They will offer and give everything themselves!”

“Yes, man is mortal, but that would not be so bad. The bad thing is that he is sometimes suddenly mortal, that's the trick! And he can’t say at all what he will do this evening.”

“Something, if you please, evil 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. True, exceptions are possible. Among the people who sat down with me at the banquet table, I sometimes came across amazing scoundrels!”

“You and I speak in different languages, as always,” Woland responded, “but the things we talk about don’t change.”

“The second freshness is nonsense! There is only one freshness - the first, and it is also the last. And if the sturgeon is second freshness, then this means that it is rotten!”

• The cosmology of the novel “The Master and Margarita” differs from the classic biblical plot, although the book contains two opposing sides of good and evil. For Bulgakov, they are equal, and “each department minds its own business.” Woland is unable to forgive Pilate and Frida, and Yeshua does not have the right to take the master with him.
• According to rumors, the novel is being filmed in the USA. It’s difficult to judge what will happen to American filmmakers, but the series “Notes of a Young Doctor” (2012–2013, UK), where Bulgakov’s hero was portrayed, was not a success for foreigners.

• In early editions, Woland was called Astaroth, and the novel was called “The Engineer’s Hoof” and “The Black Magician.”
• Bulgakov described Woland as a middle-aged man, while in the television series “The Master and Margarita” Oleg Basilashvili was 71 years old. Pontius Pilate in the book is also young, but the actor (Kirill Lavrov) who played the role of the procurator was almost 80.
• In the draft manuscripts of the novel, the description of Woland's appearance took up fifteen pages.

Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" became a unique and important work of the twentieth century. The author boldly describes the Devil himself in a completely unusual guise. Woland turns out to be a fair and very graceful character.

Hero's appearance

The novel tells the story of the Devil, who in human form comes to Earth and watches people. He draws his own conclusions and for most of the novel he is more of an observer than a maker of destinies. It is noteworthy that the image of Bulgakov’s Devil is completely different from the biblical one.

From the very beginning of the novel, Woland is surrounded by an aura of mystery. His appearance periodically changes, and in the eyes of onlookers it becomes completely exaggerated. Woland carries a cane with him and always appears in society in an expensive suit. His eyes have different colors: one of them is green, the other is black. There is greatness in Woland’s very appearance, but Woland’s appearance cannot be called pleasant. His mouth is distorted and he has dental crowns inserted on both sides. However, aesthetically the character is not repulsive or disgusting.

Unusuality of the image

The main difference between Bulgakov’s Devil and the image familiar to the people is his attitude towards people. The hero appears not as a brazen deceiver, but rather as a closed researcher. He watches people, waits for each of them to make a decision. The professor of black magic appears before readers as a well-mannered and graceful old man in beautiful, expensive clothes. Bulgakov does not make Woland Satan in his usual guise. Thanks to this, he shows that the Devil does not always look the way we expect and can appear in a variety of ways. The image of Satan in the novel “The Master and Maragrita” is very charming. The author shows the hero as wise and reasonable. He is confident and personable. Bulgakovsky Satan does not commit the usual meanness and nasty things. This is how he differs from the image familiar to all people.

The contrast between good and evil through the image of Woland

The image of Woland differs from the usual description of Satan in that he does not commit any deliberate evil at all. Rather, it provides a person with a conscious choice, for which he can subsequently punish. Thus, Woland from The Master and Margarita is more likely to dispense justice than to carry evil within himself. With the help of this technique, Bulgakov conveys to the reader the idea that good and evil are in fact inseparable from each other. They are not as opposing forces as we may often think. In the world, as in every person, good and evil coexist. And everyone decides for themselves which side to take.

Woland gives each person what he deserves. He is kind to Margarita, who steadfastly endured all the hardships of her situation. He allows the heroine to find her lover again and be close to him. He gives the Master and Margarita eternal peace, sends them into the world without fuss and worry. If this couple does not deserve eternal light (like Yeshua), then peace and eternal peace are their lot. Woland is very generous, he does not deceive anyone, does not lure anyone into committing sins. The gift of eternal peace and human happiness is in his power.

The characterization of Woland in Bulgakov's novel differs from the usual description of the Devil. This is the innovation and courage of the author. Thanks to this image of the character, the author reveals new horizons in the reader’s mind and expands the scope of his consciousness. With the help of this technique, the writer conveys to the reader the idea of ​​​​the inseparability of good and evil, of their common beginning. It is not the Devil who commits evil, but man himself.

This article will help you write an essay on the topic “Woland from The Master and Margarita,” give an external description of the hero, describe his image and compare it with the usual image of the Devil.

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