MBOU "Pogorelskaya secondary school" named after the Hero of the Soviet Cherkasov, Zubtsovsky district, Tver region

There is no happiness in the world, but there is peace and will.

A. Pushkin

I want freedom and peace...

M. Lermontov

The meaning of the finale of the novel "The Master and Margarita". Light and peace in the novel.

Target: to reveal the meaning of the finale of the novel, showing its ambiguity, based on religious ideas about good and evil and biographical data from the life of the writer.

During the classes.

1. The word of the teacher. Conversation.

So, we have come to the final stage of work on M. Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. Today we will try to reveal the meaning of the finale of the novel, revealing its ambiguity and opposition.

What happens to the main characters at the end? What gift did the Master receive from Woland?

(“O thrice romantic master, don’t you really want to walk with your girlfriend under the cherries that are beginning to bloom during the day, and listen to Schubert’s music in the evening? Wouldn’t it be pleasant for you to write by candlelight with a quill pen? Don’t you want to sit like Faust over the retort in the hope that you will be able to fashion a new homunculus? There, there! There is already a house and an old servant waiting for you, the candles are already burning, and soon they will go out, because you will immediately meet the dawn. Along this road, master, along this goodbye ! I have to go".)

By whose will does the master receive such an award? (Yeshua asked Woland, this is in his competence, but at the behest of the forces of light.)

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Promises Woland will actually receive

Walk under cherry blossoms; an eternal reminder of what happened to him one spring;

Sitting over the retort like a homunculus is an unfortunate creature, he has no flesh, the master even

Faust, in the hope of fashioning a new one, if he can create something, he will not be able to present to the world;

Homunculus; (“I in the full sense want to be born, // Having broken my glass

dungeon")

I go out alone on the road":

I want freedom and peace...

So that all night, all day cherishing my hearing,

Above me, so that it is forever green,

The dark oak leaned and rustled.

When the master and Margarita crossed the stream, "the memory of the master, restless, punctured by needles, began to fade." Bulgakov's freedom is due to the loss of memory and loses a significant part of its positive meaning: physical and spiritual freedom is possible for the master only in the other world.

“Sometimes it seems to me,” Bulgakov shared with S. Yermolinsky, “that death is a continuation of life ... We just can’t imagine how this happens.” Bulgakov is interested in the fate of a creative personality

“The peace gained by the Master is a reward, in some ways more valuable than light,” because Woland “is not going to deprive his ward of the ability to think and create”; “Only in the other world does he find conditions for creative peace, which he was deprived of on earth” () 1;

“The peace of the Master is not just a departure from the life storms of a tired person, but the realization internal state“out of choice”, this is a disaster, a punishment for refusing to make a choice between good and evil, light and darkness "( Barkov A.)2

What do you think?

Why do you think the master did not deserve the light? (The master received intuition, money, Margarita from Woland, used his services. The master has no name, which means that he abandoned his guardian angel, God. In theological writings we find: “Departure from Him leads to a failure into the abyss non-existence". Darkness is realistic, but it is not omnipotent. Everything in the world is done by the will of God. N. Berdyaev wrote: "The insane power of evil in modern world proves that there is a God. The light is outside the novel, outside the desires of the characters, everyone wants peace.)

We learn about how the master “lives” after death from the sentence of the epilogue: “Then a woman of exorbitant beauty forms in the stream and leads to Ivan by the hand timidly looking around a man overgrown with a beard. Why does the hero look around fearfully? (Afraid to return to people?) Why overgrown with a beard? (Indifferent to appearance? Why?)

3. The results of the lesson.

Conclusion: It is impossible to say unequivocally whether the master received an award or eternal torment, his image is ambiguous. His life after death is also ambiguously interpreted. But how the master could perceive such an award, we can learn from the first lines of the chapter “Forgiveness and Eternal Shelter”:

« Gods, my gods! How sad is the evening earth! How mysterious are the mists over the swamps. Who wandered in these mists, who suffered a lot before death, who flew over this land, carrying an unbearable load, knows this. The tired one knows it. And without regret he leaves the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, he surrenders with a light heart into the hands of death, knowing that she is the only one ... " And who, besides Bulgakov, could best know and feel what he wrote about, because the fate of the master is in many ways similar to the fate of the great writer...

Material used

1. http://www. /lit/eretic/finalMM

2.Barkov A. Who are they - Master and Margarita? // Science and life. 1991. No. 9, 10.

3. ***** // News. en: AKADEMIA. Special course "Master and Margarita"

Sections: Literature

Class: 11

Target: students will understand why the Master deserved peace, and not light, why Margarita was also granted peace; form an attitude towards forgiveness, mercy as the highest Christian value.

Tasks:

• to help students trace the main stages of the fate of the Master and his novel, the fate of Margarita on the basis of a citation plan;
• to organize work on comparing the images of the Master and Yeshua, the Master and Bulgakov;
• to organize work on the analysis of the episodes “Sentence to the Master”, “Sentence to Margarita”;
• organize independent work on the compilation of a cluster, mind maps.
• organize work on the analysis of themes, motives, images of the final chapter;
• organize a discussion

Teaching methods:

• heuristic conversation with elements of sequential analysis;
• independent work;
• individual work;
• artistic reading;
• work with literary text;
• film demonstration;
• creative retelling.

Equipment: a projector, the text of the novel, dictionaries, a fragment of the feature film "The Master and Margarita" directed by V. Bortko.

Preliminary homework:

• Option 1 - Make a quotation plan on the topic: "The fate of the Master and his novel."
• Option 2 - Make a quotation plan on the topic: “The Fate of Margarita”.
• Read the final chapter.
• Individual task. An expressive reading of the episode "Woland's Gift" from Ch.
• Dictionary work: find out the meaning of the word "homunculus" using dictionaries.
• Individual task: expressive reading of the episode “The Eternal Shelter of the Master”.
• Individual task: expressive recitation of poems by A.S. Pushkin "Autumn", "It's time, my friend, it's time", "Monument".

During the classes

Epigraph to the lesson:

The Devil demands justice. God is above justice.)
Saint Maximus the Confessor

Stage 1. Motivational target.

1) The word of the teacher.

So, we have come to the final stage of work on M. Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. Today we will try to comprehend the ending of the novel, revealing its ambiguity.

2) Call stage.

As you reread the final chapters, what questions did you ask yourself?

(Students share their thoughts. During the discussion, the problematic issues of the lesson are identified).

3) Statement of a problem question.

Why are the heroes granted peace, and not darkness, not light? Who and why will give them peace?

Stage 2. Information and activity.

Teacher's word:

To answer these questions, let's turn to homework.

Implementation homework 1st option. Sounds like a monologue. One of the students tells about the fate of the Master and his novel, based on quotes written out at home, for example, from chapter 13:

I am a master...

I know five languages ​​besides my native...

Once I won a hundred thousand rubles.

Ah, it was a golden age, a completely separate apartment, and also a front one, and there was a sink with water in it ...

She carried disgusting, disturbing yellow flowers in her hands.

Love jumped out in front of us, like a murderer jumping out of the ground in an alley, and hit us both at once ... etc.

a) Talk to the class.

What is the meaning of the word "Master"?

What do the Master and Bulgakov have in common?

What do the Master and Yeshua have in common? What is the difference between their positions?

b) Drawing up an intellect map by groups. Each of the three groups presents their work. (Appendix No. 1)

Analysis of the episodes "Sentence to the Master".

View a fragment from the film by V. Bortko "The Master and Margarita". Did this fragment help you answer the problematic question of our lesson.

a) Viewing a fragment of the film (from episode 9).

b) Students share their impressions, discuss.

4). Implementation of individual homework.

What gift does the hero get from Woland? Read an excerpt from the chapter?. Expand the meaning of the word homunculus.

(“O thrice-romantic master, don’t you want to walk with your girlfriend under the cherry blossoms during the day, and listen to Schubert’s music in the evening? Wouldn’t it be pleasant for you to write by candlelight with a quill pen? Don’t you want, like Faust, to sit over the retort in the hope that you will be able to fashion a new homunculus? There, there! There is already a house and an old servant waiting for you, the candles are already burning, and soon they will go out, because you will immediately meet the dawn. Along this road, master, along this, goodbye! I have to go.")

After the student's report, independent work is carried out with the text to compile the table:

How the eternal shelter of the Master is depicted. An expressive reading of an episode from Ch. 32. Implementation of homework.

How can you understand the word "peace"? Building a cluster. (Appendix No. 2)

What literary reminiscences arise? Why?

a) Implementation of homework: expressive reading by heart of poems by A.S. Pushkin "Autumn", "It's time, my friend, it's time", "Monument".

b) Students share their experiences.

Class conversation:

Why didn't the Master deserve the light?

a) Students give their guesses.

b). The teacher introduces fragments from the book of literary critic I.L. Galinskaya.

(In the book by I. L. Galineka, a very simple answer is given: the light is prepared for the saints, and peace is intended for the “true” person. What prevents Bulgakov’s Master from being considered a saint? earthly. He does not want to overcome the human, bodily beginning in himself and forget, for example, his great, but sinful love for Margarita. He dreams of staying with her and in afterlife. The second assumption is that the Master could not stand the test and despaired, he did not accept the feat that was prepared for him by fate, and burned his book. Woland invites him to continue the novel about Yeshua and Pontius Pilate, but the Master refuses: “I hate him, this novel ... I experienced too much because of him” (2, 24). The third assumption is the Master himself and did not strive for the divine light, that is, he did not have true faith. This can be proved by the image of Yeshua in the Master's novel: the author portrays Yeshua as a morally beautiful person, which is not enough for a believer (posthumous resurrection is never shown)).

How did the literary critic answer this question? Do you agree with her opinion?

Why doesn't the Master contest the verdict?

(He considers the verdict fair. He evaluates himself on the same scale of values ​​as his heroes. Master Pontius Pilate is an internal parallel. Pilatchina is withdrawal into himself, from his conscience. Pontius Pilate is punished by the Master with immortality, the immortality of eternal guilt. The Master showed unbelief and cowardice.The master understands that a person is responsible for his decisions.

By what law is peace granted to the Master? (If students find it difficult to answer the question, we refer to the epigraph.)

(According to the law of justice, Woland's law. Justice is higher than good and evil.)

(He accomplished a creative feat by writing a book about Yeshua Ha-Nozri during the time of militant atheism. The fact that the book was not finished does not detract from the deed of its author. And yet, the life of the Master was adorned with true, true love, the one that is stronger than death. Creativity and love for Bulgakov is the highest values ​​that atoned for the lack of proper faith in the hero.)

10). Implementation of homework 2nd option. "Sentence to Margarita".

a). There is a monologue response about the fate of Margarita based on a quotation plan, for example:

I was struck not so much by her beauty as by the extraordinary, unseen loneliness in her eyes. (ch.13)

I believe! Something will happen! (Ch.20)

Invisible and free!

There was one aunt in the world. And she had no children, and there was no happiness at all either. And so, at first she cried for a long time, and then she became angry ... (ch. 21), etc.

b). Class conversation:

Why was Margarita granted peace? And not the world? Not darkness?

By whom and by what law is the heroine given peace? What episode in the novel will help us answer this question?

(Students share their thoughts, discuss).

eleven). Appeal to the final chapter of the novel.

a ) - Read lyrical digression ch. 32. Artistic reading of the episode.

b) Conversation with the class:

What themes and motifs sound?

(The theme of the delusions of the human soul, the motives of fatigue, loss, weakness.)

(The image of a dark purple knight, “who joked unsuccessfully” speaks of a person’s responsibility for actions, decisions made, the artist’s responsibility for creativity).

(Retribution is inevitable, payment for all mistakes and delusions is inevitable.)

It turns out that Bulgakov's heroes are deluded people suffering from cowardice and unbelief?

(Sympathy, compassion and faith in forgiveness. The Master “releases” his hero, “forgives” him, Bulgakov “releases the Master in the hope of forgiveness as the highest value.)

This means that Bulgakov's novel is a novel of redemption, repentance, faith that God is above justice.

So by what law is Margarita granted peace?

(By the law of mercy.)

What does the writer put above: justice or mercy, forgiveness?

Let's turn to the epigraph. Saint Maximus the Confessor said: “The Devil demands justice. God is above justice.) Do you agree with him?

(Students discuss).

Stage 3. Reflective-evaluative. Appeal to the problematic issue of the lesson.

- Why are the heroes granted peace, and not darkness, not light? Who and why will give them peace?

(Students' monologue answers sound).

So what is the ending of Bulgakov's novel - happy or tragic?

Discussion.

D/Z. Write an essay on one of the suggested topics:

• “What questions did the novel make you think about?”
• "The Moral Lessons of Mikhail Bulgakov".
• “What do we, people of the 21st century, care about the spiritual duel between Yeshua and Pontius Pilate?”

The world of the novel "Master and Margarita" by M. Bulgakov with a bizarre interweaving of fantastic, inexplicable phenomena and everyday realities will not leave anyone indifferent. We find ourselves in a timeless space, where two realities: eternal and transient - are layered on top of each other.

Woland, the prince of darkness, the devil, is in Moscow for the Supreme Court. The very fact that Satan himself begins to administer a just Judgment speaks volumes and makes one think. What people have come to in their vices, they turned away from God so much that Evil itself considered it its duty to do good for the sake of universal balance. The scales: good-evil - clearly tipped in the direction of evil. And Woland appears in the world of people to restore order.

Everyone gets it for merit: members of MASSOLIT, the director of the Variety, critics. The fate of the main characters is also decided by Woland.

The last 32nd chapter "Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge" is written in a high style. The night catches up with the galloping, rips off their deceitful veils. This night everything will be in the true light, illusions are dispelled. At night, there is no place for the antics of Koroviev and Behemoth, and the author's irony disappears from Chapter 32. Bassoon is transformed, he is now "a dark purple knight with the gloomiest and never smiling face." Behemoth the cat, who can eat pickled mushrooms off a fork and pay fares, "now turned out to be a thin young man, a page demon, the best jester that ever existed in the world." Azazello, the Master have changed. And, finally, Woland flew in his real form. This night, the fate of the heroes is decided, irony is out of place here.

The first to receive forgiveness is the Great Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Two thousand years ago, he did not listen to his heart, did not heed the truth, did not manage to free himself "from the power that is beautiful for people, ..., Emperor Tiberius." He got scared. He was frightened and sent to execution the beggar "tramp", the philosopher, the bearer of the Highest Truth Yeshua Ha-Notsri. It is cowardice that Woland calls the most serious vice. Pilate was punished for his cowardice. He tried in his own way to save Yeshua, hinting to him at the words of renunciation. The prisoner did not heed his hints, because "it is easy and pleasant to tell the truth." Approving the death sentence, Pilate hoped that the Sanhedrin would have mercy on Yeshua, but the high priest of Kaif chooses the murderer Barravan. And again Pilate failed to object, he did not save Yeshua.

That night the sentence expired. For Pilate asks the One whom he sent to execution, with whose fate he was forever connected, with whom he was trying to talk like that.

In the epilogue, in the dream of Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, the former Bezdomny, we learn what the Procurator of Judea wanted to ask the prisoner Ha-Nozri so much. Pilate wanted to hear from the lips of Yeshua that this execution did not take place, that it was not he who pronounced the verdict. He wanted to wake up and see in front of him a living "healer" of human souls. And the former prisoner confirms that the Procurator imagined this execution.

The fate of the Master is more uncertain. Matvey Levi came to Woland with a request to give the Master peace, since "he did not deserve the light, he deserved peace." There was a lot of controversy among researchers about the "eternal shelter" of the Master. L. Yanovskaya says that the rest of the Master will forever remain only promised to him. The hero in the novel never sees his "eternal home". V. Kryuchkov declares that the Master's peace is a devilish obsession, peace is not achievable. The researcher's evidence of this is the lines of the novel, which say that the Master's memory begins to fade. And the memory of the novel and earthly love is the only thing he has left. Creativity is impossible without memory. Therefore, the Master's peace is not divine, but deceitful. But most researchers of Bulgakov's novel adhere to a more optimistic point of view. They believe that the Master nevertheless entered his "eternal home" and was rewarded with peace.

So did the Master get his peace, and why didn't he deserve the light? His feat is not Christian, it is the feat of an artist. Perhaps that is why he did not deserve the light. The master did not get rid of the earthly, he did not forget his earthly love Margarita. But did the hero need light, perhaps peace - the ego is the only thing his tired soul craves. It seems to me that the Master has received his peace, because the last chapter is even called "Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge." By the fact that Woland gives peace to the Master, the author wanted to emphasize that the artist is neither a saint nor a sinner, his highest desired reward is peace in which he can create next to his beloved woman. And the lines “and the memory of the Master, the restless memory punctured by needles began to fade” can be interpreted as a washing out of the memory of all the tragic that happened to him. Masters will no longer worry about everyday troubles, the stupidity of critics, misunderstanding. All this for the sake of creativity, because it gives immortality: "manuscripts do not burn."

The epilogue differs sharply in style from the last chapter. There is irony in it again. We will learn about the fate of all the heroes left on earth. A memorable meeting with the devil did not pass without a trace for anyone. The epilogue is written in the spirit of modern pseudo-fantastic films: when, after terrible and inexplicable events, the hero wakes up, and everything that happened turns out to be just a dream. In the epilogue, we learn that everything that happened was imagined by Ivan Bezdomny.

He took the Master's advice never to write poetry. The homeless man became a professor of history, found his way. But every spring full moon, he loses his peace and common sense. Ivan Nikolaevich goes to the Patriarch's Ponds and recalls those events. He dreams about Pontius Pilate, about the number one hundred and eighteen and his beloved

The next morning, Ivan gets rid of lunar ghosts and obsessions. "His punctured memory fades away, and no one will disturb the professor until the next full moon." It is no coincidence that the epilogue ends with words about memory in the same way as chapter 32. A punctured memory cannot be killed; it does not completely disappear either for the Master or for the Homeless. This feels tragic: nothing is forgotten. Memory does not die, it only fades until the next full moon.

The finale of the novel, and the novel itself, can be understood in two ways: to accept everything that happened on faith, or to calm down with the thought that all this is nonsense of the sick consciousness of Ivan Bezdomny. Bulgakov gives us the choice of what to choose - the individual matter of each reader.

romance diabolical obsession

In the world of the novel "The Master and Margarita" fantastic, unexplained phenomena intertwined with everyday realities. This mystical work is thoroughly saturated with the author's satire and black humor. But the last 32 chapter "Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge" differs from the whole novel in the form of narration. It is written in a high style, the motives of transformation sound in it. That night, illusions are dispelled and Woland and his retinue acquire their true form. There are no more antics Behemoth and Koroviev. This is no longer a huge black cat and a man in a plaid suit - this is a thin young page boy and a dark purple knight with a gloomy face. Azazelo, Master, Woland are changing. This night, the fate of the heroes is decided, the author's irony is inappropriate here.

All the characters are as serious as possible - they understand that today all scores are being settled, the terms of punishments are expiring.

Pontius Pilate receives forgiveness. Two thousand years ago, he signed the death warrant for the simple philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri. The great procurator of Judea became cowardly and was punished for his cowardice. But that night he was freed from the constant pangs of conscience.

The Master receives the long-awaited peace and the opportunity to create freely, next to the woman he loves. Not light, but precisely peace - what the tormented soul of the persecuted writer really longed for. Masters will no longer be disturbed by life's problems, condemnation and misunderstanding from critics. He enters his “eternal home” with Margarita, and the artist’s “restless memory pierced by needles” fades.

But the solemn and mysterious atmosphere of chapter 32 in the epilogue changes to the usual satirical one. With the same irony, the author tells about the fate of those who remained in Moscow. The case of a gang of skilled hypnotists worried the minds of the city residents for a long time. But the years went by and returned Moscow life to its usual course. However, every spring full moon, some individuals lose their peace. Among the "victims of the moon" is Ivan Ponyrev, aka Homeless. He heeded the advice of the Master, left poetry and became a professor of history. In this man there are no more traces of madness with which he ended up in Stravinsky's clinic. But he can't handle this moon. Once a year he appears at the Patriarch's Ponds and repeats his path, just like many years ago, when Misha Berlioz was hit by a tram. At home, in a dream, he sees the execution of Gestas, sees the lunar road and two people walking along it, sees a woman and his acquaintance from room 118. And in this strange obsession is the tragedy of Ivan Bezdomny: his memory does not forget anything, it only fades until the next spring full moon.

Thus, in the finale of the novel "The Master and Margarita" the idea is confirmed that justice will always prevail. Those who deserve it will receive peace, and the guilty will lose it.

The finale refers to the last chapter of the novel "Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge" and the epilogue. In them, the writer finishes the story about all the characters that appeared on the pages of the book.

Quite understandable changes took place in the lives of minor characters: each of them took the place that corresponds to his talents and business qualities. Cheerful entertainer Georges Bengalsky retired from the theater. The rude and ill-mannered administrator Varenukha became sympathetic and polite. The former director of the Variety Theater, a lover of alcohol and women, Styopa Likhodeev is now the director of a grocery store in Rostov, he has stopped drinking port wine, but drinks only vodka and avoids women. Financial director Rimsky from Variety went to work in a children's puppet theater, and Sempleyarov, chairman of the acoustic commission of Moscow theaters, abandoned acoustics and now leads the harvesting of mushrooms in the Bryansk forests, to the great joy of Muscovites who love mushroom delicacies. With the chairman of the house committee, Nikanor Ivanovich Bosy, a stroke took place, and the Master's neighbor and informer Aloisy Mogarych took the place of financial director in the Variety Theater and poisoned Varenukha's life. Variety barman Andrey Fokich Sokov, as Koroviev predicted, died nine months later from liver cancer... The fate of the main characters in the finale is unclear, which is quite understandable: Bulgakov cannot accurately describe the posthumous fate of the Master and Margarita in the transcendental world. It follows that the ending of the novel can be interpreted in different ways.

Leaving Moscow with his retinue on the eve of Easter, Woland takes the Master and Margarita with him. The whole company on fantastic horses flies to the mountains, where Pontius Pilate sits in a stone chair on a “bleak flat top” (2, 32). The master pronounces the last phrase of his novel, and the forgiven Pilate hurries to the city along the lunar path: “Over the black abyss (...) an immense city caught fire with sparkling idols reigning over it over a garden that has grown magnificently for many thousands (...) moons” ( there). This magical city resembles the New Jerusalem, as it is depicted in the Apocalypse (21: 1, 2) or in the philosophical works of European utopians - a symbol of the new earthly paradise, the "golden age". "Should I go there (...)?" the Master asked uneasily” (ibid.), but received a negative answer from Woland; “Woland waved his hand towards Yershalaim, and it went out” (ibid.).

The master was determined by higher powers differently than Pontius Pilate: “He didn’t deserve the light, he deserved peace” (2, 29), Levi Matthew informs Woland. What is light and peace in the novel? Some literary scholars believe that Bulgakov's novel reflects the ideas of the Ukrainian religious philosopher of the 18th century Grigory Skovoroda, the latter's books, no doubt, were known to the writer at least through his father. Peace, according to the philosophical concept of Skovoroda, is “a reward for all the earthly suffering of a “true” person”, peace (...) personifies eternity, an eternal home. And the symbol of the resurrection and the last stretch of the path to peace is the moon, “mediating between the earth and the sun”, or rather, a moon path resembling a bridge ”(I.L. Galinskaya. Riddles famous books. M., 1986, p. 84). It is easy to see that the "eternal shelter" in last chapter"Masters and Margaritas" and Ivan Ponyrev's painful dream in the epilogue, thanks to some details, can be perceived as an artistic illustration of the reasoning of the Ukrainian philosopher.

Other literary scholars believe that the finale of Bulgakov's novel echoes Dante's Divine Comedy (V.P. Kryuchkov. The Master and Margarita and The Divine Comedy: on the interpretation of the epilogue of M. Bulgakov's novel.//Russian Literature, 1995, No. 3 ). In the third part of Dante's Comedy (in Paradise), the hero meets Beatrice, who leads him to the Empyrean, the fiery center of paradise. Here streams of light stream from a dazzling point and God, angels, blissful souls abide. Maybe Matthew Levi is talking about this light? The hero-narrator himself in Dante places himself not in the Empyrean, but in Limbo - the first circle of hell, where ancient poets and philosophers and the Old Testament righteous live, who are spared from eternal torment, but also deprived of the eternal joy of uniting with God. The hero Dante finds himself in Limbo because, from a Christian point of view, he has a vice - pride, which is expressed in the desire for absolute knowledge. But this vice is also worthy of respect, because it is fundamentally different from mortal sins. In the last chapter of the novel, Bulgakov draws an afterlife reminiscent of Limbo. The master and Margarita, having parted with Woland and his retinue, cross “in the brilliance of the first morning rays over a stone mossy bridge” (2, 32), walk along the sandy road and rejoice in the peace and quiet that they dreamed about in earthly life, and now they will enjoy them in an eternal house twined with grapes.

Why didn't the Master deserve the light? In the aforementioned book, I. L. Galineka gave a very simple answer: light is prepared for the saints, and peace is intended for the “true” person (op. cit., p. 84). However, it is necessary to explain what does not allow Bulgakov's Master to be considered a saint? It can be assumed that both in life and beyond the threshold of death, the hero remains too earthly. He does not want to overcome the human, bodily beginning in himself and forget, for example, his great, but sinful love for Margarita. He dreams of staying with her in the afterlife. The second assumption is that the Master could not stand the test and despaired, he did not accept the feat that was prepared for him by fate, and burned his book. Woland invites him to continue the novel about Yeshua and Pontius Pilate, but the Master refuses: “I hate him, this novel ... I experienced too much because of him” (2, 24). The third assumption is the Master himself and did not strive for the divine light, that is, he did not have true faith. The image of Yeshua in the Master's novel can serve as proof of this: the author portrays Yeshua as a morally beautiful person, which is not enough for a believer (posthumous resurrection is never shown).

It must be admitted that the reward of the light of the life-weary Master would be unconvincing, it would contradict the artistic conception of the novel. And besides, there is much in common between Bulgakov and the Master, so Bulgakov, like Dante, could not reward a hero similar to himself with heavenly radiance-bliss. At the same time, the Master, from the point of view of the author, is certainly a positive hero. He accomplished a creative feat by writing a book about Yeshua Ha-Nozri during the time of militant atheism. The fact that the book was not finished does not detract from the act of its author. And yet, the life of the Master was adorned with true, true love, the one that is stronger than death. Creativity and love for Bulgakov - highest values who atoned for the lack of proper faith in the hero: the Master and Margarita did not deserve heaven, but escaped hell, having received peace. This is how Bulgakov expressed his philosophical skepticism, so characteristic of the writers of the 20th century.

Describing the Master in the finale, Bulgakov does not give an unambiguous interpretation. Here one should pay attention to the state of the protagonist when he goes to his eternal (that is, the last) shelter: “... Margarita’s words flow in the same way as the stream left behind flowed and whispered, and the Master’s memory, restless memory pierced by needles, became go out. Someone released the Master, as he had just released the hero he had created” (2, 32). The memory of the novel, of earthly love - this is the only thing that remained with the Master. And suddenly “memory fades”, which means that sublime love experiences die for him, creativity becomes impossible, which the hero so dreamed of in earthly life. In other words, the Master receives body-spiritual, not divine peace. Why should the Master keep creative forces if no one reads his works? For whom to write? Bulgakov does not bring the depiction of the Master's fate to a clear conclusion.

Bulgakov retains his understatement in relation to Ivan Bezdomny. In the final, the proletarian poet lives in real world, stops his poetic exercises and becomes an employee of the Institute of History and Philosophy. He did not write a continuation of the novel about Yeshua, as bequeathed to him by the Master. He recovered from the damage cast on him by "criminal hypnotists." Only once a year - on a festive full moon - a part of the Master's truth is miraculously revealed to him, which the student again forgets upon awakening-recovery. Once a year, Professor Ponyryov sees the same strange dream: a woman of exorbitant beauty leads by the hand a fearfully looking around, overgrown with a beard man, and then they go together to the moon (this episode is very reminiscent of the procession of the hero Dante and Beatrice to the Empyrean and at the same time makes you remember the lunar path, which G. Skovoroda wrote about). On the one hand, this obsessive dream can be regarded as the delirium of a patient, on the other hand, as an insight, when the soul of the only disciple of the Master opens towards the eternal, without which life is empty and meaningless. Through this dream-vision, Ivan is forever connected with the Master. Or maybe this dream is an obsession from Woland: after all, the moonbeam is the witch's light of the night, strangely transforming everything; excessively beautiful woman- a witch who became beautiful thanks to Azazello's magic cream.

So what is the ending of Bulgakov's novel - happy or tragic? It seems that the writer deliberately does not give a direct answer to this question, because in this case any definite answer would be unconvincing.

Summarizing the above, it should be emphasized that the interpretation of the finale of The Master and Margarita may be different. However, the convergence of Bulgakov's novel and Dante's poem makes it possible to discover interesting features Bulgakov's text.

In The Master and Margarita it is easy to see the influence of the images and ideas of the Divine Comedy, but this influence does not come down to simple imitation, but to a dispute (aesthetic game) with famous poem the Renaissance. In Bulgakov's novel, the finale is, as it were, a mirror image of the finale of Dante's poem: a moonbeam is the radiant light of the Empyrean, Margarita (perhaps a witch) - Beatrice (an angel of unearthly purity), Master (overgrown with a beard, looking around fearfully) -Dante (purposeful, inspired by the idea of ​​the absolute knowledge). These similarities and differences are explained by the different ideas of the two works. Dante draws the path of a person's moral insight, and Bulgakov - the path of the artist's creative feat.

Bulgakov, perhaps, deliberately made the ending of his novel ambiguous and skeptical, as opposed to the solemn ending of The Divine Comedy. The writer of the 20th century refuses to assert anything for sure, talking about the transcendental world, illusory, unknown. The author's artistic taste manifested itself in the enigmatic ending of The Master and Margarita.

At first glance, the ending of the novel is tragic. Master, completely desperate to find understanding in modern society, dies. Margarita dies because she cannot live without her beloved, whom she loves for her kind heart, talent, mind, and suffering. Yeshua is dying because people do not need his preaching about goodness and truth. But Woland at the end of the novel suddenly says: “Everything will be right, the world is built on this” (2, 32), and each hero receives according to his faith. The master dreamed of peace and gets it. Margarita dreamed of always being with the Master, and remains with him even in the afterlife. Pontius Pilate signed the death warrant for an innocent man and has been tormented by immortality and insomnia for almost two thousand years. But in the end, his most cherished desire is also fulfilled - to meet and talk with a wandering philosopher. Berlioz, who did not believe in anything and lived in accordance with this conviction, goes into oblivion, turning into Woland's golden goblet. So what: the world is arranged fairly and therefore it is possible to live on with calm confidence? Bulgakov again does not give a definite answer, and the reader himself can choose the answer for himself.