Dress
Rehearsal for Master and Margarita.
The Gorge
Continues.
“I was dying,
tormented
By the delirium of death...”
M. Yu. Lermontov. Mtsyri.
M.
Yu. Lermontov has several occurrences of a “gorge” in his poem Mtsyri. Most importantly, the boy
remembers “my father’s house in our gorge.”
The
word “gorge” is connected in
Bulgakov’s Theatrical Novel with
other words close in meaning and even having the same root in the Russian
language. Such words as “crevice,” “gap,” “split,” “chasm,” etc., are found
both in Pontius Pilate and in Master and Margarita.
In
the Pontius Pilate sub-novel of Master and Margarita Bulgakov uses the
word “crevice” several times when describing Matthew Levi’s location on the
Bald Mountain (Golgotha). ---
“He positioned himself not on the side from which the execution
[the Crucifixion of Christ] could be best seen, but on the northern side, where
there were crevices and chasms…”
It
is very interesting to note that Bulgakov does not call Matthew Levi by name in
this particular instance, but merely “one man,” emphasizing the theme of
loneliness. Here he is also using the word “crevice” which in Russian shares
the same root with “gorge.” ---
“Clinging inside the crevice to the cursed by heaven waterless
soil, a sick little fig tree was trying to live. It was under this tree that
the only [sic!] spectator, and not a participant of the execution positioned
himself… striving to find on this northern side of the mountain some kind of
rift in the [soldiers’] chain… The circle closed… And now he moved to the side,
toward the crevice…”
Why
did Bulgakov in his Theatrical Novel need
the word “gorge,” which seems to have
no connection either to the theater itself or to the staircase described,
except to allude to the presence of the Magnificent
Four: A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, V. V. Mayakovsky, and S. A. Yesenin,
all associated with the Caucasus. A crevice, a gorge, a cave – are all places
where a person can hide and be alone. In Pontius
Pilate, Bulgakov shows Matthew Levi carry the lifeless body of Yeshua into
a cave, again on the northern side of the Bald Mountain. He had probably
discovered this cave while investigating the crevice in which he had been
sitting.
In
practical terms, Bulgakov needed all these chasms, gorges and crevices in order
to hide his theatrical sets in them right on the stage. It also shows that he
was dreaming of staging a play of Pontius
Pilate, which was so skillfully hiding inside the allegedly fantastical
novel Master and Margarita.
***
Maksudov,
the lonely soul, is not only akin to Lermontov, but he is also akin to Mtsyri.
Bulgakov writes:
“I was shy of strangers, sitting at the tables [in the buffet of
the Independent Theater]. I was afraid of approaching them, although I did want
to approach them.”
Like
Mtsyri, Maksudov had no friends. His only friend Bombardov was a creature of
Maksudov’s imagination. As a real person he didn’t exist. And here is a perfect
time to offer yet another proof of that. ---
“Now it was finally clear to me [Maksudov] that at the helm of the
Independent Theater stood two directors: Ivan Vasilievich, which I already
knew, and Aristarch Platonovich.
By the way, tell me why in
the office where I was signing the agreement there is only one portrait, that
of Ivan Vasilievich?
Here Bombardov, usually very quick, became uneasy.
Why?.. Downstairs? Hmm… hmm…
no… Aristarch Platonovich… he… there… his portrait is upstairs…
I realized that Bombardov was not yet used to me, he was
self-conscious with me. It became clear from this unintelligible answer.”
As
it turns out, Maksudov liked to talk to himself and did not always have answers
to his questions. For this reason he ends this passage with the words:
“This world enchants, but it
is full of puzzles, -- I [Maksudov] thought.”
***
Not
knowing the way home, circling around the monastery, and finally returning to
it, Mtsyri fell gravely ill:
“I
tried to get up… everything whirled…
I wanted to cry out… my dry
tongue
Was soundless and immovable…
I was dying…”
Judging
by how Maksudov is describing his condition in the 14th chapter of
the Theatrical Novel: Mysterious Miracle-Workers, it again
becomes clear that Bombardov does not exist, that if anybody has a fever, it
must be Maksudov, who is in a very poor condition, both mentally and physically.
It is in this chapter that Maksudov admits that he had “acquired the habit of
talking to himself.”
Getting
no news from the theater, Maksudov finds it easier to talk about ailments, and
some non-existent “Cleo” clinic, rather than about his anxiety over the
Independent Theater possibly turning down his play.
As
soon as Maksudov receives the news from the theater about the expected
rehearsals of his play – lo and behold! – Bombardov appears, and as is often
the case in Master and Margarita,
where one cannot tell where master ends and Margarita begins, and vice versa,
-- in the case of the Maksudov-Bombardov pair, there is a clear picture of
Bulgakov splitting one character into two personalities. As we shall presently
discuss, the reader must become suspicious of this meeting of two apparently
very sick men. What else can it be but a splitting of one sick man into two?!
“Here Bombardov entered the room. Pale and jaundiced, appearing
taller after his illness, and his voice also changed as a result of it, he
said:
You know it already? I am
visiting you for this purpose.
And standing up before him in all my nakedness and poverty,
dragging my old blanket over the floor, I kissed him, dropping the note [just
received from the theater, with the good news].”
And
indeed, if we regard the Theatrical Novel
as a work in which Bulgakov was sharing his experience of working at the
Moscow Arts Theater, and also his experience with staging some of his plays,
then it is quite likely that he endowed his main character Maksudov to some
extent with his own features. And one of these features is the kidney disease
that Bulgakov himself was suffering from. Bulgakov’s father died from the same
disease, and eventually Bulgakov succumbed to it himself.
In
that case, why does he give this disease not to Maksudov but to Bombardov,
unless the two of them are one and the same person?
Thus
Bulgakov shows Maksudov in the last 14th chapter of the first part
of the Theatrical Novel, The Mysterious
Miracle-Workers. Maksudov has fallen ill.
“I
was tormented by the delirium of death.
It seemed to me that I was
lying
On the moist bottom of a deep
river,
Surrounded by a mysterious
darkness,
And feeding my eternal
thirst,
A gurgling icy-cold stream
Was pouring into my chest…”
Maksudov
fell ill during the worst possible for Moscow month of November. ---
“A drizzle? A drizzle? Well,
you know Moscow, I daresay. Extremely improper to be in the streets in
November. And to be in the work offices also improper… It’s really bad when to
be at home is no good either.”
Maksudov
is badly sick. It is he who has the kidney disease. And if Mtsyri is
temporarily saved from death by the monks, who bring him inside the monastery,
Maksudov’s life is temporarily prolonged by a note from the theater, announcing
the rehearsals of his play Black Snow.
These
rehearsals end for Maksudov through the sabotage of his play, and he commits
suicide by plunging headlong into the river from a bridge. This reminds us of
the suicide of his character Bakhtin, who shoots himself on a bridge.
Thus
closes the circle in Maksudov’s life, like it closes for Mtsyri in his. But in
Mtsyri’s case it is not on a bridge, but inside a monastery.
To
be continued…
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