Strangers In
The Night.
Alexander
Blok’s Women.
Eurydice.
“…In this illusory
house
You are the ghost, existent,
Whereas I am the reality,
Dead…”
The “Unknown”...
From
the theme of Ophelia, linked to a woman’s faithfulness, we are moving on to
Eurydice, who closes Blok’s poetry collection titled Verses About a Fair Lady. Only in the penultimate poem in this
cycle it becomes clear that the woman in question is indeed Eurydice, on
account of the following words:
“Shadows
are walking in the street,
I don’t know – alive or
asleep…
Clinging to the church step,
I am afraid of looking back…”
It
is also clear now, from the previous poem, what kind of “secret signs are burning on the
solid wakeless wall” in his sleep. Having read the story of Orpheus
and Eurydice, Blok had dozed off over the book. –
“Golden
and red poppies
Are oppressing me in my
sleep…
I am running away into past
moments,
Shutting my eyes in fear,
On the pages of the book
getting cold
There is a golden maiden’s braid…”
This
is how Blok imagines Eurydice to himself: the bride and wife of Orpheus, the
semi-mythical figure, a poet and a singer, first appearing in the poetry of
Virgil and Ovid, although we find references to Orpheus and Eurydice already in
Plato’s Dialogues.
One
of the earliest love stories, in which Eurydice is bitten by a poisonous snake,
and she dies. Orpheus journeys to the subterranean Kingdom of the Dead, ruled
by Hades (Pluto) and Persephone (Proserpine), and successfully pleads with the
gods to let Eurydice go back with him to the land of the living, provided that
they would get them back to Hades anyway, when their natural time to die comes...
Eurydice is currently merely a shadow, like all the dead are in Hades. But she
is following Orpheus as an apparition back to earth on the promise of the gods
that she would become a woman again as soon as they reach the world of the
living. But there is also a warning. Until they fully emerge out of Hades,
Orpheus, who leads the way, must not look back at Eurydice, lest he lose her
forever and this time irretrievably.
For
a while, Orpheus honors the agreement and does not look back at his wife. However,
near the point of destination, he cannot bear it anymore and for whatever
reason looks back. And of course right then and there Eurydice vanishes in
front of his eyes and is lost to him forever.
In
his last poem of the cycle, Blok asks the highly provocative question:
“You
Orpheus have lost your bride, --
Who whispered to you – Look
back…?”
The
only answer to this question can be: It was doubt
that made him do it. Orpheus was doubtful that Eurydice was really following
him, because he doubted the word given to him by the gods. He also doubted his
own destiny, did not believe that he could ever be reunited with his Eurydice.
That was despite the benevolence toward him of Hades and Persephone, and their
own amazing story. Having fallen in love with Persephone, Hades stole her from
her mother the harvest goddess Demeter who immediately complained to Zeus.
Persephone loved her abductor Hades, however, and a deal was made. Mother and
daughter were to stay together part of the year (spring, summer and early
autumn), while the rest of the year (late autumn and winter) the husband and
wife would stay together in the Kingdom of the Dead.
What
a beautiful legend! Spring must have been Blok’s favorite season! On the other
hand, Blok must have believed, together with Orpheus, that nothing good lasts
and there is no return.
How
pessimistic is this approach to life! Human beings must always believe in their
destiny, and never succumb to doubt.
It
was precisely for his doubt and lack of faith that Orpheus was punished and
ended up losing his own life. After the second death of his beloved Eurydice,
he, in Blok’s words, fell into “anguish,” became a woman-hater, for which he
was torn to pieces by a mob of angry Bacchantes.
“Oh
anguish! In a thousand years
We shan’t be able to measure
the soul,,,”
In
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov shows
master as a doubting man. Master keeps hoping that Margarita would eventually
forget and abandon him, never appreciating the strength of her love for him.
Bulgakov raises this subject both in chapter 13 The Appearance of the Hero, and in chapter 23 The Extraction of Master.
When
Margarita tells master that she would come clean with her husband, telling him
that she is in love with another man, and that she was returning to master
permanently, she is suddenly beset with doubt and asks master:
“–Tell me, perhaps this is
not what you want?
–My poor, poor one! [says
master]. I won’t let you do it. It won’t be good for you to be with me, and I
won’t allow you to perish together with me.
–Is this the only reason? –
she asked and brought her eyes close to mine.
–The only one. – She became
terribly agitated and clung to me, putting her arms around my neck, and then
she said: I am perishing together with you. In the morning I will be with you.”
But
still master doesn’t want to let Margarita know that he is alive. It’s not love
but pity, speaking in him:
“Poor woman. However, I have
hope that she has forgotten me.”
Passion
and interest can only be felt in Margarita toward master, but never in master.
This is also something related to Blok:
“And
always measuring with a strict heart,
He didn’t know how to love,
and couldn’t.”
We
will return to this subject later on.
It’s
precisely when he needs her the most that master renounces Margarita. In the 24th
chapter The Extraction of Master,
when, having exchanged whispers with master, Margarita tries to convince him
that they must stay together, master responds:
“No, it’s too late, I don’t
want anything more in life. Except seeing you. But my advice to you is to leave
me. You’ll perish with me.”
And
when Margarita asks Woland to return them both – her and master – to the
basement, master reacts by no means like a loving man:
“Ah, do not confuse the poor
woman! – and he started mumbling. – Poor,
poor one…”
Especially
revealing toward A. A. Blok are the following words:
“…And generally speaking, it
does not happen that everything would be as it was…”
Meanwhile,
not only did master’s passion for Margarita dry out, but also that
“dreaminess,” that “inspiration,” which Woland was talking about, dried out as
well.
When
Woland tries to scare master by the prospect of a destitute life ahead, master
comes back to life:
“Gladly, gladly… Then she’ll
come to her senses and leave me…”
Even
back in the basement, master continues to work on Margarita:
“But I pity you, Margo,
that’s the trick, that’s why I keep talking about this one thing. Come back to
your senses! Why should you cripple your life with a sick and destitute man? Go
back to where you were! I am sorry for you, that’s why I am saying it.”
Yes,
again this is pity, not love. Bulgakov’s master has lost his fire, which Blok
has been writing about, in his poems about love. Had master’s love for
Margarita been equal to Margarita’s love for master, he would not have been
eaten by the feeling of doubt, which had caused Orpheus to lose his Eurydice.
We are moving next to my new chapter Margarita Beyond Good And Evil.
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