Woland in Disguise.
A Beardo with a Rolly.
“So, come to me from
subterranean fire,
My little devil, my disheveled
wit,
And sit near me, and be a
parrot
I’ll say, ‘You fool!’ --- you
shout back, ‘You fool!’”
M. Yu. Lermontov.
…Dressing
himself in the rags left for him on the river bank, Ivan picked up the little
icon, the candle, and the matches, and made his next move, telling himself: “To Griboyedov! No
doubt he must be there.”
“Like Chatsky, from a ship to a ball.” This quote from Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (referring to a Griboyedov
hero) is the best way to characterize Ivan’s decision not to go back home, but
to proceed to “The House of the Writer.”
Prior to this, was only a preparation for the big number, which explains the
choice of the opera and the Polonaise itself.
Taken for a “white ghost” at the Griboyedov and still under the demonic
influence, the first thing that Ivan does there is look “under the table,”
which brings him to the gloomy conclusion that Woland isn’t hiding there. Bulgakov
nevertheless reveals that the demonic force is present there, by means of “a
voice.” The significance of the “voice” as a familiar Bulgakovian technique will
be explained in my chapter Cockroach [Tarakan],
analyzing his eponymous horror
story, to be posted later. There are two voices in Ivan’s scene we are discussing,
a man’s and a woman’s.---
The basso said pitilessly: “A
clear thing: delirium tremens.”
We
do not know whether Ivan failed to hear the basso voice or just did not get it
that the words were about him but he did react to the second “woman’s voice” by
explaining that he was “almost apprehended twice.” The fact that he wasn’t
apprehended despite looking like a “white ghost,” shows that he was definitely
under Woland’s protection, and it had to be Woland who put the idea for Ivan to
go to the Griboyedov looking like this, instead of first going home to change,
in the first place, thus sending him over to people who apparently know him
well enough to give him a recommendation for a psychiatric clinic. But now the
most interesting part begins with the appearance of a third voice. Ivan
actually turns around to see the man who is talking in his ear, but he does not
see him.---
“Excuse me, excuse me. Say it
more precisely,” sounded a soft and polite voice over the ear of Ivan
Nikolayevich. “Killed, say, how’s
that? Who killed?”
This
“voice” appeared right after Ivan’s appeal to his “brothers
in literature,” to the effect that “the
consultant must be caught who, on Patriarch
Ponds, has killed Mischa Berlioz.” Ivan reacts to this soft and polite voice over [his] ear. He does not see
the owner of the voice.
“A foreign consultant,
professor, and spy!” turning around, responded Ivan.
What
the “voice” had said is crammed with interesting information. By using the
words “excuse me,” and not just once
but twice, to attract the reader’s attention, Bulgakov totally exposes Woland
as the “voice.” (We are dealing with a play on words here. The original
repeated Russian word “Vinovat” has
two meanings: the general meaning is “Guilty!”
and the derivative meaning, such as in this context is “Excuse me.” Hence the double entendre employed by Bulgakov here,
and an elucidation of my comment above.)
It
was Woland who had told Berlioz that a “Russian woman, a Komsomol member,” was
going to cut off his head. Woland mocks Ivan by asking such questions. He had
already told Berlioz “how” he would be killed and “who” by. By repeating the
words “excuse me” twice, Woland confesses
his crime, namely, that it was he, Woland, who arranged the killing of Berlioz,
telling both Berlioz and Ivan about it.
The
fact that it is only Ivan who can hear this “voice” is shown by Bulgakov’s use
of the word “soft.” The littérateurs had already learned about Berlioz’s death
prior to the arrival of Ivan. Obviously, the people in a rattled crowd could
not hear the “soft voice,” and their impression must have been that Ivan was
talking to himself.
“And what is his name?”
they asked softly into his ear.
Observe
that the soft voice first sounds over
Ivan’s ear but then right into his
ear. It is obvious, I repeat, that Ivan is the only one there who hears this
voice. The fact that Woland could remain invisible in this scene, is
corroborated by yet another reference to Berlioz. Remember how Berlioz was
struck that the professor was repeating verbatim his own arguments to Ivanushka
regarding the Gospels on their way to Patriarch
Ponds. It could be that the professor
[Woland] had been following the pair (Berlioz and Ivan), or even walked right
by their side all the way from Bronnaya Street, while remaining invisible, and
could hear every word of the conversation between them.
The
people who resist the devil interest him and amuse him. Woland became
interested in the “virgin” Ivan precisely because of his audacity
understandable in a young person. This is the reason, I think, why Woland
handled Ivan by himself, chasing him toward the numbers. Indeed, a hunt of
sorts is taking place in front of our eyes. The ultimate goal, contained in the
prediction that Ivan, as a punishment for his pluck and stupidity, would find
himself in a psychiatric clinic, asking the doctor there about schizophrenia,
must come true.
[The story of Ivan’s
interaction with Woland reminds me of the story of Andrei Fokich, the buffet
vendor, whose greed and stupidity push him on his own will into the wolves’
den, and who, having explained to the underlings that he has a business matter
to discuss with “Mr. Artist,” gets his wish fulfilled with an extra.] See more
about this in my chapter on cannibalism in Master
and Margarita.
…When
asked about the “consultant’s” name, Ivan “languished”
and indeed started acting like a man who had lost his mind. Ivan was “carried
away,” so to speak. He started calling people names and fighting them, was
restrained and dispatched to the psychiatric clinic. But even there, Woland
would not leave Ivan alone, letting him have the rest promised by Professor
Stravinsky.
Under
the influence of the medications, Ivan is pacified to the extent that he
becomes split into two personalities: the “old Ivan” and the “new Ivan.” The
new Ivan is no longer interested in the death of Berlioz. He is filled with
regret that he had not pumped the “consultant” for more details about Pontius
Pilate and Yeshua. The old Ivan keeps on resisting, returning to the key point
that the consultant had ‘known in advance’
that Berlioz was going to have his head cut off. Concluding his conversation
with the old Ivan the new Ivan asks him:
“So then, how do I come out
of this in this case?”
“A fool!” a basso voice
responded somewhere, and it did not belong to either Ivan, and sounded
uncannily like the voice of the consultant.
Bulgakov
says that “Ivan, for some reason, did not take offence
for being called a fool, but was even pleasantly surprised, grinned, and quieted down in a
semi-slumber.”
Ivan,
who had just been arguing to himself about “a
personality extraordinary and mysterious one hundred percent, a man personally
acquainted with Pontius Pilate,” deemed Woland’s attention to himself as
a compliment.
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