Summary “Master and Margarita” Bulgakova


In the main action of the novel there are two storylines. The first line is set in Moscow in the 1930s. The second line is a narration about what happened more than two thousand years ago in the city of Yershalaim. The story of these events is given either in the form of separate chapters from the novel of the main character of the novel – the Master, or in the form of memories of the witness of those events – Woland.

The novel begins on a hot May day at the Patriarch’s Ponds – it is there that the reader, and with him the editor of the journal Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, and the poet Ivan Bezdomny acquainted with Woland, who says that he is a specialist in black magic. In fact, Woland is none other than Satan himself. He is accompanied by his retinue – a beautiful girl whose appearance is spoiled only by the ugly scar on his neck – Gella, a huge cat called Behemoth, who from time to time becomes a man, and also the strange type of Koroviev

whom Woland himself calls Fagot and the gloomy Azazello.

Berlioz and Homeless get acquainted with Woland at a time when they have a dispute about who Jesus Christ is. Woland, unexpectedly appearing next to them, claims that it was a real person once. And in order to prove that not everything in the world is subject to man, and that he is not the creator of his own destiny, Woland says that Berlioz will soon be cut off by the girl’s head, and Ivan himself will have to learn what schizophrenia is. Immediately after this meeting, Berlioz falls under the tram, which runs the girl, and he really cuts off his head. A Homeless, trying to find Woland, falls into a psychiatric clinic with Dr. Stravinsky, who diagnoses him – schizophrenia.

At this time, Woland, along with his retinue, appears in an apartment that Berlioz shared with Stephen Likhodeev, the director of the Variety Theater, at Sadovaya Street, 302-bis apartment 50. Stepan is in a bad hangover, and Woland brings him vodka and a snack, and Also, a treaty in which it is said that he, Voland, will give performances at the Variety Theater. After

that, Voland decides to drive Stepan out of the apartment, and he is in Yalta.

In apartment 50 is the chairman of the housing association Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, whom Koroviev persuades to rent an apartment to Woland. He thinks for a long time, but 400 rubles, which Koroviev gave him over the rent for the apartment, are doing their job. Barefoot agrees, takes the money and hides them at home in the ventilation. In the evening of the same day people come to him who arrest him, since the rubles he hid in the ventilation turned out to be foreign currency. As a result, Bosoy is in the same clinic as Bezdomny.

The director of the theater Variete Rimsky and the administrator of Varenuk try to find Likhodeev, who sends them telegrams from Yalta. Roman can not understand how Stepan was so far from Moscow, and decides to refer these telegrams “where it should go.” Varenukha goes with telegrams, but he does not go anywhere, since he is intercepted by Behemoth and Gella and delivers him to that apartment # 50 to Woland.

In the evening in the Variety Theater there is a performance of Woland. Koroviev and Behemoth send rain to the hall from the paper chervonets, which are caught by all spectators. After that, the “ladies’ shop” opens on the stage, where Gella is in charge, and where all the ladies in exchange for their clothes receive the most fashionable outfits. But at the end of the presentation, paper chervontsi become a chopped newspaper, and fashionable outfits disappear, and the ladies are forced to run around the city streets in one linen.

After the performance, Roman in his office collides with Varenukha, who became a vampire, and with Gella. Roman is frightened, only the cry of a rooster saves him from certain death. Varenukha and Gella disappear. and the grayed Roman leaves Moscow.

And Ivan Bezdomny in a psychiatric clinic gets acquainted with the main character – the Master, who explains to him who Woland is. He also told him his story. He was a historian by training and worked in a museum. Once he was unbelievably lucky – he won the lottery 100 thousand rubles. He quit his job, took two rooms in a basement room and began writing a novel about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri. His novel was almost finished when he met Margarita on the street one day. She carried a bouquet of yellow flowers and looked so that the Master immediately fell in love with her. Margarita also fell in love with him. She was married, but came to see him every day. At last he experienced real happiness.

His novel was finished, and he took it to the editorial office, but did not publish it – moreover, the newspapers published devastating articles by critics who accused the Master of propaganda of Christianity. The master tried to burn his novel, but ran to Margarita was able to pull a pack of sheets from the stove. She took the manuscript with her, walking home to explain herself to her husband. But the Master did not wait for her – people came to him and took him away. He returned home only a few months later and discovered that another person lives there. After that, he went to the clinic of Stravinsky, where he has been living for several months, without having a name or a surname – just like a patient # 118 ..

On the same day, Margarita on a walk in the Alexander Garden meets Azazello, who sends her an invitation to visit on behalf of a certain gentleman. He promises her that she learns something about her beloved, and she agrees. In the evening, undressing in front of the mirror and rubbing the cream that Azazello gave her, Margarita realizes that she can fly on a mop, which she does. She flies to the ball to Woland, but first thunders the apartments of critics who offended the Master.

At midnight in apartment number 50 begins the Great Ball at Satan. Margarita acts as hostess of the ball. She’s naked, like all the women at the ball. After the ball Woland asks Margarita what she wants to receive as a reward for her service, and she replies that her only desire is to see her beloved. And then in the apartment number 50 appears Master.

The second line of the story is connected with the history of Pontius Pilate. Once, to the great procurator, the Jews brought the arrested philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri. He has already been sentenced to death, but Pilate must approve it. At the interrogation of the arrested Pilate understands that Yeshua is not a criminal, he simply preaches to people his thoughts about the future kingdom of God. He tries to save Yeshua, but he does not succeed. And Yeshua, together with the other condemned, is crucified on the cross on the top of Bald Mountain. And in Moscow, Satan’s ball ends with a fire in apartment number 50. At this time, Woland and his retinue on the roof of one of the buildings in Moscow say goodbye to the city.

On the roof appears Levi Matvey – one of the most devoted followers of Yeshua, a former tax collector. He asks Woland if he will take the Master and Margarita with him, because, according to the light that sent him, they “did not deserve the light, but deserved peace.” Master and Margarita at this time are in the same cellar in which their love developed. Azazello comes to visit them and brings a bottle of wine, after drinking which, they both lose consciousness. At the same moment, the news spread in Stravinsky’s clinic that the patient died at number 118, and in the house on Arbat absolutely not yet an old woman is dying. So the Master and Margarita go to rest together with Woland and his retinue.


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Summary “Master and Margarita” Bulgakova