Master (russian: link=no, Ма́стер) is a fictional character from the novel ''

The Master and Margarita ''The Master and Margarita'' (russian: Мастер и Маргарита) is a novel by Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940 during Stalin's regime. A censored version, with several chapters cut by ...

'' by the Russian writer

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...

Description

Master is a

Muscovite Muscovite (also known as common mica, isinglass, or potash mica) is a hydrated phyllosilicate mineral of aluminium and potassium with formula K Al2(Al Si3 O10)( F,O H)2, or ( KF)2( Al2O3)3( SiO2)6( H2O). It has a highly perfect basal cleavag ...

, a former

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and a highly educated person who speaks several foreign languages. After winning a large sum of money in the lottery he decided to fully dedicate himself to writing a novel about

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of ...

and the last days in life of Yeshua Ha-Nozri. His first attempt to publish it, however, caused a barrage of criticism from professional writers in the press. After a lot of harassment he gradually went mad and at the moment of despair burned his novel. The same newspaper criticisms gave one of the Master's acquaintances, Aloiziy Mogarych, the idea to write a false report to the authorities to seize Master's apartment. After the investigation Master was freed but, having nowhere to live, no money and no purpose in life, he decided to find refuge in a mental hospital.

Woland Woland (russian: Воланд) is a fictional character in the novel ''The Master and Margarita'' by the Russian (Soviet) author Mikhail Bulgakov, written between 1928 and 1940. Woland is the mysterious foreigner and professor whose visit to Mosco ...

became interested in the story of the Master's novel. He gets back the burnt manuscript and gives the Master and his beloved

Margarita A margarita is a cocktail consisting of Tequila, triple sec, and lime juice often served with salt on the rim of the glass. The drink is served shaken with ice (on the rocks), blended with ice (frozen margarita), or without ice (straight u ...

a place for eternal serenity and retreat. His full name is unknown. His own answer to the question is: ''"I don't have a last name"''. In the novel his name is written without capitalizing the first letter. In both Russian and world literature ''Master'' became the epitome of the artist, the author, who opposes the official culture of his time. In the case of Bulgakov's character, Master opposes the

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

Prototypes

Most scholars find the Master character hugely autobiographical: Mikhail Bulgakov burnt the first variant of his novel, and even after rewriting it, he realized that it was next to impossible to publish such an unorthodox book in the USSR. Alfred Barkov offers an alternative interpretation of the Master character: "the ominous meaning (of the term "master") becomes evident if you realize that the System used it to define the writers who were ready to choke their ambitions and create something that it wants". According to Barkov, one of Master's prototypes was

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

— the most well-known

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...

writer. Barkov believes that the year of Gorky's death (1936) is the time of the events in the "Master and Margarita". However, it's not possible to date the timeline of the Moscow part of the novel.

References

External links

''The Master and Margarita''
{{The Master and Margarita Characters in Russian novels of the 20th century Mikhail Bulgakov characters Fictional writers Literary characters introduced in 1966 Male characters in literature Comedy literature characters