“Cap” Continues.
“And the thought of
eternity, like a colossus,
Strikes the mind of man all
of a sudden…
Each hour of torment or of
joy becomes
Clear to us, and we can give
account
To ourselves, concerning our
fate.”
M. Yu. Lermontov.
[…Here we witness a kind of rehearsal for Master and Margarita, where Berlioz is also in a hurry to reach the
tourniquet, to cross the street toward the phone booth, and no matter what,
even though Berlioz was in a safe position where he found himself waiting for
the tram to pass, he decided to be extra cautious and made a step back putting
his hand on the tourniquet. Even as he did this his hand slipped and disengaged
from the hold, while his foot slid as if on ice and skated forward on the
pavement… Berlioz was thrown on the rail.]
In
his story Cockroach, Bulgakov plays
upon two well-known literary masterpieces. One of them is A. S. Pushkin’s Stone Guest, and the other is A Hero of our Time by M. Yu. Lermontov,
specifically the novel’s chapter titled The
Fatalist. Here we will be talking about the second case, where Bulgakov’s
inimitable sense of humor is particularly noticeable.
The
story of the Fatalist is filled
through with a sense of macabre, as its main character seeks and challenges
death, merely to prove the idea of inevitability and predetermination. In
Bulgakov’s Cockroach, Cap is trying
to save both himself and his murderer, that is the opposite of what goes on in
Lermontov’s Fatalist (but with the
same result, death, in both stories), which contrarian approach is generally
characteristic of Bulgakov.
Curiously,
every unsuspecting reader knows about the Fatalist,
even without having read the story. Here, in this chapter, Lermontov introduces
the idea of the “Russian roulette.”
The Fatalist begins with the Moslem belief, which is shared by
Christians, according to the central hero of the whole novel Pechorin, to the
effect that “a man’s fate has been written in heaven.” Vulich the fatalist
wishes to test “whether a man can on his own whim dispose of his life, or each
of us has a preordained fateful minute.”
[…In
Master and Margarita, in the scene
between Berlioz and Woland, as well as in the scene between the buffet vendor
and Woland, Bulgakov promotes the idea that nothing happens of itself, that is,
by accident.
“If there is no God… who then controls
people’s lives?”--- asks Woland, “his eye glistening.” To Ivanushka’s “Man it is who himself controls it,”
Woland protests: “How can it be that man
controls it, if he cannot even be sure about his own next day?”
However,
Bulgakov clearly shows that a person’s participation in his or her destiny,
namely,--- wrong decisions, lying, to cover up wrongdoing, etc., are
precipitating the human downfall. Bulgakov’s Margarita understands who she is
dealing with, she is bold, strong, clever, and most importantly truthful with
the demonic force. These qualities give her a moral edge, because no matter how
she is being tempted to seek revenge, and offered to kill her enemies, Master’s
enemies, she does not give in to the temptation and stands her ground, and thus
saves her soul. As for Berlioz, he loses his head for one reason only: why was
he corrupting the virgin Ivanushka? As for the latter, Woland did not kill him,
despite Ivanushka’s extreme rudeness to the devil. Brainwashing is a crime of the first magnitude just like murder.
Using Berlioz’s example, Bulgakov shows his attitude to such people, who are in
this respect equal to the demons, and are therefore not fit to live.]
The
Russian officer of Serbian extraction Vulich is the first one on record in
world literature who plays the Russian Roulette. He is lucky with his pistol,
but then coming out into the street he sees a drunken Cossack with a sword in
hand, and approaches him, asking: “Who
are you looking for, brother?” The Cossack says: “You!” and slices him from the shoulder almost down to the heart…
Pechorin,
who is the main personage of A Hero of
our Time, “observed, and many old
soldiers confirmed it, that oftentimes the face of a man about to die in a few
hours bears a certain eerie imprint of an unavoidable destiny…” As he was
dying, Vulich’s last and only words were: “He’s
right,” reflecting on a previous remark made by Pechorin during the game of
Russian roulette: “You will die anon.”
…The
fate of Vasili Rogov was decided the moment he bought that useless to him
Finnish knife, and Bulgakov shows “a mark of
inevitable fate” on his face.---
“Cockroach was bloating. His own mother would not have recognized
him. He aged, the corners of his lips were drooping, the skin of his face
became gray and unclean and his watery eyes rolled up to the sky.”
Cockroach is a murderer, and his crime is punishable by death. He understands it only too well:
“I am lost, miserable Delegate
me! Dark is my destiny!”
And
Cockroach feels sorry for Cap whom he has just slaughtered. Here, with perfect
clarity, Bulgakov shows that the demonic force releases its hold on Cockroach.
Mission accomplished. Cockroach’s soul is going to Hell.
“The boulevard screamed, roared, and thousands-strong, as it
seemed, crowds were hooting around Cockroach.”
Cockroach
is hit in his face, on his head, and he softly cries:
“Don’t hit me, tie me up.”
Drawn
by the commotion, there arrives the long-awaited police, but by now it is all
the same to Cockroach.---
“Like in Hell, all this
commotion, Cockroach thought.”
And
he is right. Hell is the only destination for him now.
“...Foam was crawling out of his mouth in a blob; Cap raised his arms
to the sky, making a hoarse sound, and swayed toward Cockroach… In a sweeping
motion, Cockroach pricked Cap’s throat, and rose-colored bubbles came out on
those pale lips… [Cockroach] sliced Cap across the face; and yet again, just as
Cap was falling down on the grass, he cut him across the abdomen. Cap lay down
into the green grass and blotched it with patches of blood.”
What
is to be, cannot be escaped. Cap just could not save Cockroach’s life.
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