On the origins of the crowd scenes in the novel “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov

Abstract

The article deals with the roots of the crowd scenes in “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov, focusing on such motifs of the novel as death's head hawkmoth and theatrical motifs. The origins of the crowd scenes in Mikhail Bulgakov’s literary work are all connected with the mentioned three motifs. The researcher uses information from the little-known literary, historical, and cultural sources. These include, firstly, the occult works of the Fin de siècle writers, such as novels “The Gloomy House Mystery” and “The New Power” written by the “Criminal Novel Master” Aleksandr Tsehanovich (1862-1896); the play “The Fair God” by David Aizman (who has been justly called “Chekhov of the Jews”) (1860-1922); the story “The Succubus” written by the Belgian writer Antoine Louis Camille Lemonnier. “A House in a Delirium” by a German prose writer W.Hollander. Second, these include literary work by a Soviet writer: story “The Condemned” by Mikhail Kozakov. Third, an important role belongs to sketches from the “The Red Panorama” journal: “The Footsteps Leading Westward” by Jānis Larri, “Travelling from Resort to Resort: Yalta” by D. Gorodinskiy. The plots and details of the named works had a great influence on Mikhail Bulgakov and inspired him while writing such chapters of the novel as “Never Talk with Strangers”, “The Seventh Proof”, “The Chase”, “Praise Be to the Rooster”, “News from Yalta”, “Black Magic and Its Exposure”, “Nikanor Ivanovich’s Dream”, “The Great Ball at Satan's” and some fragments of the auxiliary plot connected with the figure of Pontius Pilate.