The Bard. Genesis.
Posting #31.
“…Generally speaking, I
don’t understand
how he got himself to become
a director.
He is as much a director as I
am a bishop!”
M. A. Bulgakov. Master
and Margarita.
One
can easily imagine that, considering that certain features of Andrei Bely come
out in the personage of Woland on Patriarch Ponds in the first part of Master and Margarita, due to his
hyperactive nature, and even though Bely’s features also come out in other
characters, such as master and even Yeshua, the most prominently they are
present in the personage of Matthew Levi. We may say with certainty that
Matthew Levi’s prototype is indeed Andrei Bely.
Most
interesting happens to be the scene on the stone terrace of the Lenin Library
in Moscow and particularly the meeting between Matthew Levi and Woland. We can
imagine that one and the same person is talking to himself here, if we remember
how masterfully Andrei Bely represents himself in his poems as a madman.
This
can be true in the psychological thriller, but even in this case a question
arises about the role of Azazello, who is present at the conversation, but is
not a participant in it.
This
scene demonstrates that the role of Woland still belongs to Vladimir
Mayakovsky, as Sergei Yesenin (who happens to be Azazello’s prototype) was
Mayakovsky’s contemporary. And also because, unlike other Russian poets and
Agrippa, having summoned the demon, Mayakovsky had successfully subdued him in
his play in verse Mysteria Bouffe
[see my posted chapter Woland Identity],
with the help of some “unclean” Russian industrial workers.
Azazello’s
presence on the stone terrace of the State Library in Moscow can be explained just
as easily. To begin with, he is Sergei Yesenin, the Russian “people’s poet.”
Besides, there is a common aspect between Matthew Levi’s appearance out of the
wall of the round turret on the roof behind Woland’s back. This is no longer
the Pontius Pilate sub-novel, but the
Master and Margarita novel proper.
This appearance alerts us to the fact that Matthew Levi’s prototype in the
novel is also a notable Russian poet or writer. In this case, both.
And
also, such an appearance “from the wall” points to the execution of N. S.
Gumilev by a firing squad. The Russian expression “to put against the wall” (or
“to put to the wall”), unlike the similar English expression, where it means
merely to be put in a difficult situation, has no such connotation, but
directly indicates death by a firing squad.
But
there is also a third meaning, connected to Azazello in Master and Margarita, namely, to his first appearance in Chapter 7:
The No-Good Apartment. In this
chapter the genius of M. A. Bulgakov brilliantly depicts the great Russian
composer M. P. Mussorgsky in a fit of Delirium
Tremens.
And
it is right here that Azazello first appears in human form, and not as a
sparrow, as he does in the 3rd chapter of Master and Margarita. (See my chapter Birds.) –
“…And next happened the fourth and last phenomenon in the
apartment, when Stepa [Likhodeev, whose prototype is the great Russian composer
M. P. Mussorgsky] who had already slipped down onto the floor, started
scratching the lintel with a weak hand. Right out of the console mirror stepped
in a short but exceptionally broad-shouldered fellow, wearing a bowler hat on
his head and with a fang protruding from his mouth, disfiguring his already
uncommonly despicable physiognomy. His hair being flaming red, at that.”
The
following words ought to have told the researchers of Bulgakov that the
prototypes of the two characters, both of Azazello and of Stepa Likhodeev, are
indeed stellar celebrities for all time.
“Generally speaking, – this
new one said, entering the conversation,
– I don’t understand how he got himself to become a director. – The redhead
was increasingly speaking through his nose. –
He is as much a director as I am a bishop!”
Bulgakov
makes M. P. Mussorgsky (Stepa Likhodeev) Director of the Variety Theater,
superior over both L. N. Tolstoy (Varenukha) and N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov (Rimsky).
Bulgakov
calls himself a “mystical writer” with a good reason. The scene on the roof of
the State Library in Moscow is loaded. Matthew Levi comes out of the wall just
like earlier Azazello emerged straight out of the mirror.
To
be continued…
***
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