Dress
Rehearsal for Master and Margarita Continues.
“I
want to live! I want this sadness…”
M. Yu. Lermontov.
The
plot of Chekhov’s novella The Duel somewhat
resembles one of the storylines of Master
and Margarita. A married woman has a lover. But the events develop rather
differently.
A
married woman runs away with her lover, but soon thereafter, the lover gets
bored with her. Then her husband appears and challenges the lover to a duel. At
the duel neither the duelers nor the seconds know how to proceed, and one of
them recalls the duel from Lermontov’s Hero
of Our Time…
This
is not like it is in A. S. Pushkin’s A
Shot, but Chekhov’s Duel has a
happy ending. Nobody is killed, and not even wounded. Providence interferes in
the person of the deacon. When the husband takes his aim dead set to kill his
wife’s lover, the deacon makes such a wild shriek that the pistol in the
husband’s hand trembles, and the bullet merely grazes the lover’s neck. At the
end, everybody says farewell to one another, and they part peacefully.
The
usually smooth and easy to read Chekhov is rather heavy-handed in this novella.
A notable Russian literary critic of the time, who also happened to be a
specialist on Chekhov, gave Chekhov a negative review on this particular
novella.
Why
am I writing all this?
For
the reason that Chekhov’s Duel not
only has some relevance to the Theatrical
Novel, but also reveals one of the puzzles in Master and Margarita, namely, in the mystical scene of the appearance
of two dead souls, A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov, at the restaurant of the
Writers’ House. Having no ID to prove that they are both writers, Pushkin and
Lermontov receive unexpected help from the Maître d’hôtel, who orders the
receptionist to let them in.
“What is your name?
Panaev, politely responded [Koroviev].
The woman wrote down this name in her book and raised an inquiring
glance at Begemot.
Skabichevsky, squeaked the other, for some reason
pointing to his primus.
Sofia Pavlovna wrote that down too, and pushed the book of visitors
for them to sign in.
Koroviev wrote Skabichevsky against
the name Panaev, and Begemot put down
Panaev…
Sofia Pavlovna, blinking from amazement, took a long time studying
the scribbles made by the unexpected visitors in the guest book.”
After
this trick with Skabichevsky and Panaev in Master
and Margarita, it should become clearer to the reader that in the Theatrical Novel, in the play Black Snow, of whose plot we know
nothing except for some bits and pieces, Bulgakov depicts, in reverse order,
the suicides of two great Russian poets: Yesenin and Mayakovsky. He shows it by
the gunshot, which is what Mayakovsky did five years after Yesenin’s suicide.
It seems as though for Bulgakov the Civil War did not end in 1920, because
Mayakovsky shot himself in 1930.
***
Introducing
the word “duel” in his Theatrical Novel,
Bulgakov puts everything in its place. The real-life critic who had criticized
Chekhov’s novella The Duel had the
name Skabichevsky. Considering that Chekhov made an explicit reference in his
novella’s duel scene to Lermontov, in his Hero
of Our Time, we need to take a closer look at the cause of the duel there.
(Incidentally,
remember Kot Begemot ostensibly for no reason pointing to his primus? Apparently,
there was a reason for that. Lermontov was pointing to his primacy in the
matter of Chekhov’s Duel!)
The
novel’s hero Pechorin, returning from a rendez-vous with Vera, a married woman,
is spotted. Mistakenly, he is suspected of having an affair with an innocent
young girl, Princess Mary, who is a guest at the same house as Vera. A duel takes
place, in which Pechorin, having to defend Mary’s honor, but unable to reveal
his real affair with a married woman, kills his accuser, whom he earlier had
labeled a liar.
Chekhov
shows a love triangle in his own way. The lover finds his married mistress,
whom he is already tired of, with another man, which situation inflames his
jealousy and re-inflames his love for her.
The
plot is probably interesting enough, but it is written rather uninspiredly, as
noted by the critic Skabichevsky, Chekhov’s contemporary.
As
for Koroviev (the dead soul of A. S. Pushkin), he calls himself “Panaev” (another
real-life figure, to be sure) due to the fact that being a literary critic and
a minor writer in his own right, Panaev is best known for bringing back to life
in 1847, that is, 10 years after Pushkin’s death, his celebrated literary
magazine The Contemporary, which he
reestablished together with the famous Russian poet N. A. Nekrasov.
Having
signed himself as “Panaev” against the name “Skabichevsky,” Koroviev, with Bulgakov’s
help, points out that these two men are linked by their profession. Both are
literary critics.
***
Returning
to the Theatrical Novel, why did
Bulgakov write this bizarre phrase? ---
“…And how many times during the night I threatened myself to rip
off my own arms, for having written the triply cursed phrase [I will challenge you to a duel!].”
The
only thing that comes to mind is that the expression “triply cursed” points to S. A. Yesenin, as in his long poem Pugachev he frequently uses triple repetitions.
As
for the desire to “rip off my own arms,”
it points, in my opinion, to the manner of S. Yesenin’s suicide: he slashed his
wrists. Another indication of it is the fact that Maksudov says this phrase
right before his own suicide, and the Theatrical
Novel unexpectedly breaks off on the very next page.
Yesenin
had to plan his suicide very carefully, reacting to Lermontov’s ---
“…And
you won’t wash away with all your black blood
The poet's sacred blood.”
To
which Yesenin, shortly before his death, while visiting the Caucasus where
Lermontov fought, wrote: “Poets are all
of one blood.”
Yesenin
wanted to be close to Pushkin and Lermontov.
In
order to confuse the reader, Bulgakov brings forth his own interpretation of
poets’ suicide. Their blood, the “righteous blood” of the poets, joins them all
after death, as well as in the Theatrical
Novel and in Master and Margarita.
Although
already the 3rd chapter of the Theatrical
Novel is titled My Suicide [a
suicide attempt which never materialized, for whose accomplishment Maksudov
steals a handgun from his only friend, apparently an interrogator who had
questioned Maksudov after the end of the Civil War], we find out how bad the
situation is, in the 9th chapter It’s
Started!
If
in the 3rd chapter we learn that Maksudov’s decision to commit
suicide came after a meeting with the so-called litterateurs, who unanimously
panned his novel, saying that it could never be published, then in the 9th
chapter Maksudov does not seem to have a particular reason to kill himself, as
he is on his way to get money for the play which is an adaptation of his
already partially published novel, courtesy of the publisher Rudolfi, who had
unwittingly saved Maksudov’s life on that dark evening when he was going to
shoot himself.
…Rudolfi.
Yet another mystical figure. But this belongs to my future chapter A Swallow’s Nest of Luminaries.
In
the 9th chapter It’s Started! Bulgakov
clouds the atmosphere with the word “tikhy, soft,” as if preparing us, out of
nowhere, for the following astounding phrase:
“There won’t be me, pretty soon there won’t be me! I am determined,
but still this is a bit scary.”
In
other words, there was a tiny flame of hope flickering in Maksudov
nevertheless. How does it go in Lermontov? ---
“I
want to live! I want this sadness…”
To
be continued…
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