The Bard:
Window Into Russian Literature.
Posting #17.
“…And I am
standing like before the Eucharist,
And telling
you in response,
That I would
have died right now of sheer joy,
Had I been
honored with such a fate.”
Sergei Yesenin. To Pushkin.
So, Natasha, too, had flown
out the window. How come Annushka had missed her?
Even though Natasha had not
been invited to Satan’s Great Ball, she got there anyway, serving alongside
Gella, the Queen of the Ball Margarita. (See my chapter Guests at Satan’s Great Ball: Natasha.)
Here
I am going to analyze the character of “Natasha” in M. A. Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita under a different
angle. Already in chapter 21 The Flight
Natasha smudges Azazello’s cream, she has inherited from Margarita, over
Nikolai Ivanovich (his prototype is the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam) turning
him into a hog on account of his sexist attitude toward women.
Having
been turned into a hog, Nikolai Ivanovich is forced to fly after the flying
Margarita carrying Natasha on his back. Being justifiably mistreated by Natasha,
he appeals to Margarita to restrain her housemaid. But Natasha reminds him how
he had just recently been calling her “goddess” and “Venus.”
“Ah,
so now I am a housemaid to you? A housemaid?! – exclaimed Natasha, pinching
the hog’s ear. – And I used to be a goddess?
How did you used to call me?”
“Venus!
– replied the hog weepily…”
“Venus!
Venus! – triumphantly shouted Natasha. Margarita!
Queen! Do ask on my behalf that they let me stay on as a witch! Anything will
be done for you, you are given the power!”
And Margarita responded: “All right, I promise!”
That’s
why when Natasha and her hog appeared in apartment #50 in chapter 22 With Candles, Woland made the following
observation: “Strange
is the behavior of beauties.” [See my chapter Guests at Satan’s Great Ball: Natasha.]
This
is the very same Natasha who, having become acquainted with Monsieur Jacques at
Satan’s Great Ball, reappears in chapter 24 The
Extraction of Master:
“How will it be your
pleasure, my dear donna, to dispose of your retinue? Personally, I have no need
for them, said Woland. Here into the open door ran Natasha, naked as she
was, and clasped her hands. – My Dearest
Margarita Nikolayevna, do plead with them on my behalf! – She looked toward
Woland askance. – Let them keep me here
as a witch. I don’t want to go back to the mansion. I’m not going to marry
either an engineer or a technician! Monsieur Jacques himself proposed to me!
Natasha unclenched her fist and showed what looked like gold coins.
Margarita cast a meaningful glance toward Woland. The other gave a nod. Then
Natasha hugged Margarita’s neck, gave her a loud kiss, and with a triumphant
cry flew out the window.”
But,
for some reason, there is not a word about her in Annushka’s deposition. The
only way it can be explained is that Natasha happens to be the only one to fly
out the window of Woland’s bedroom, the other three had flown out through the
stairwell.
It
is already in chapter 21 The Flight that
Nikolai Ivanovich calls Natasha a “goddess.” –
“Goddess! – the hog was
howling. – I cannot fly so fast!”
What
I see in this story is the legend of Danae and Zeus, but in reverse. Nikolai
Ivanovich is a hog, not a god. The role of Zeus here is apparently played by
Andrei Bely, who was irresistible to women. Sergei Yesenin had the same reputation.
But it was Bely who had a poem titled Separation
in the poetry cycle Crimson Mantle in
Thorns, which is practically borrowed from the Danae myth.
“In
Heaven everything was exaltedly glowing
In purple and crimson gold.
I was agitated, passionately
and rebelliously,
You spoke of the bliss of
being.
You
told me we shall be like gods,
Standing
over the world. No, we shall not die…
We
were returning, you sat behind your desk,
You
were calculating in the world’s bliss.
Into
your window flowed a stream of gold coins,
Lying
down on the floor like a golden patch…”
These
last two lines in particular are pointing to the story of Danae, although
Andrei Bely is writing here about the death of a friend.
And
again I was sitting down at the deserted table,
Thinking
in anguish about one thing only.
Into
your window flowed a stream of gold coins,
Lying
down on the floor like a golden patch…”
And
for a third time Andrei Bely writes the same line, closing his poem with it:
“…I
waited long, the stream of gold was flowing
Into
your window like a glowing patch.”
As
I already wrote in my chapter Guests at
Satan’s Great Ball, I believe that, although the name Jacques refers to the Russian poet Andrei Bely, there are many
indicators here that link it to Sergei Yesenin. I also wrote that Bulgakov uses
many features and traits of Andrei Bely in numerous characters of his acquiring
now this now that of Bely’s traits, for surely the man was the ultimate
eccentric.
And
so, Natasha is a “goddess,” “Venus,” and Nikolai Ivanovich laments in the
Epilogue: “Venus!
Venus! Eh, me, fool, old cretin!”
Bulgakov
writes:
“This will keep going on until a window opens noisily in the dark
part of the mansion and an unpleasant woman’s voice sounds. Then the sitting
man wakes up from his reverie and replies: Just
wanted to breathe some air. The air is so good!
He lies, he lies! Oh gods how
he lies! – mumbles Ivan
Nikolayevich to himself. – How much would
I give to penetrate his secret, to know what kind of Venus he has lost and is
now trying to catch back fruitlessly, searching with both his hands in the air?”
It
is quite likely that Bulgakov knew some love story in which both S. Yesenin and
O. Mandelstam were involved. Actually, Bulgakov does not give the name of the
wife of Ivan Nikolayevich, the alleged author of the novel Master and Margarita, considering that the novel opens with Sergei
Yesenin and closes with him. It is for a good reason that Bulgakov sees himself
as a mystical writer. After all, none of Bulgakov’s researchers was able to recognize
Sergei Yesenin in the character of Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrev because Yesenin
died at the age of 30 by opening his veins in the Leningrad hotel Angleterre, where he came to be closer
to his idol A. S. Pushkin.
To
be continued…
***
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