Who is Pontius Pilate Master and Margarita. Analysis of the chapter "Pontius Pilate" from the novel by M.A.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is not only the most famous in all the works of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, but also the most widely read. And not only in Russia, but also abroad. Why is the work so loved by readers? Probably the reason is that the novel perfectly reflects the realities of Soviet reality, and also perfectly reveals the characters' characters.

Among the main characters is Pontius Pilate. Interestingly, he is a historical figure (1st century AD). Pilate is the personification of power. He is proud that everyone is afraid of him, consider him cruel. The procurator knows that the war is open and veiled - and he is sure that only those who do not know fear and doubt have it. However, the image of Pontius Pilate is idealized. Yes, yes, in fact, the procurator of Judea was even more cruel, and also distinguished by exorbitant greed.

The origin story of the ruler, invented in the Middle Ages in Germany, is presented in the novel as a real fact. According to legend, Pontius Pilate is the son of Ata (star-gazer king) and Pila (miller's daughter). Looking at the stars one day, the astrologer read from them that the child that he would conceive right now would become a great man in the future. Then At ordered the beautiful Pila to be brought to him, and after 9 months a child was born who got his name from the names of his mother and father put together.

Contradictory personality. Pontius Pilate is both terrible and pitiful. The crime committed by him against an innocent person dooms him to eternal torment. This story is also mentioned in one of the Gospel stories from Matthew (another interesting parallel: Levi Matthew was Yeshua's disciple in the novel). It says that the wife of the procurator of Judea had a terrible dream in which Pilate would pay for the crucifixion of the righteous.

The novel clearly traces the idea that Pontius Pilate does not want the death of Yeshua. He sees that this person does not pose any danger to society, because he is not a thief, not a murderer, not a rapist. However, the state does not want to agree with the ruler, and the high priest, of course, sees a threat in a person who preaches an unknown religion. The Roman procurator is unable to fight, even the strongest mental anguish does not force him to make a decision at his own discretion: he knows that this can shake his authority in the eyes of society, his strength and power.

When the execution ritual was completed, and nothing could be corrected, Pontius Pilate completely forgot about a quiet life. He reproaches himself for his weak will, and at night he often sees a dream in which everything happens differently: nothing happened, Yeshua is alive, and they walk along the moonlit road and talk, talk...

Surely the real Pilate did not torment himself with such doubts and regrets. However, M.A. Bulgakov supposedly believed that in the most inhuman tyrant feelings of fear and justice can fight. At the same time, the writer, as it were, shifts the responsibility for such a view onto the shoulders of the Master: after all, he is the author of the novel.

It is not known with what feelings the Roman ruler actually left this world, but in the book everything should end well, and in the end, the fifth procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, will find peace of mind.

"The Master and Margarita" is a truly great work that every person who considers himself cultured must read.

PONTIUS PILATE is the central character of M. A. Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" (1928-1940). with a bloody lining, a shuffling cavalry gait, ”going to the forefront of the plot, where he will be invisibly present until it is completely over, until the last phrase of the epilogue. This presence of his is due to the main plot event that connects the narrative: the novel composed by the Master is written about him, Pilate of Pontus. The hero of the hero simultaneously acts as the protagonist of the "antique" chapters that form the "novel within the novel". The two Pilates, "literary" and "historical", do not differ in any way; they constitute a single image, objectified in the narrative. "

Literary ”P.P., created by the Master, is not a product of artistic fantasy; he was "guessed" as he really was, and therefore completely coincides with the "historical" that Baland talks about in a conversation with Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny at the Patriarch's Ponds. The identity of both Pilates is confirmed by Woland himself, the only living witness who was present incognito in the palace of Herod the Great during a conversation between P.P. Pilate to the question of Matthew Levi about the murderer of Judas: "I did it." At the end of the novel, releasing his hero, the Master simultaneously frees the "biblical" Pilate, who has been tormented by pangs of conscience for two thousand years. In the process of creating the image, P. P. Bulgakov used several sources. The first in importance were the canonical gospels, in which the writer learned the main plot circumstances: P.P. does not find fault in the actions and words of Jesus (Luke, 23.5; John, 18.38), tries to save him (John, 19.12), Pilate is pressured by the high priests and excited they are the people, crying out “Crucify him!”, and, finally, the procurator makes the final decision on the execution out of fear of Caesar: “The Jews shouted:“ If you let Him go, you are not a friend of Caesar ”(John, 19.12). The probable source of the image was the book of the German historian G. A. Muller "Pontius Pilate, the fifth procurator of Judea, and the judge of Jesus of Nazareth" (1888). Here P. P., as in the novel, is called the fifth procurator: other authors believe his sixth.Another literary source was the book of the English theologian F. W. Farrar "The Life of Jesus Christ" (1874, Russian translation 1885). In the chapter "Jesus Christ before Pilate," Farrar described the "Roman contempt" of the hegemon for the Jews and spoke of his "cowardly compliance." of which Bulgakov could read in the "Encyclopedic Dictionary" of Brockhaus and Efron. On Good Friday, on a high mountain in the Swiss Alps called Pilate, the ghost of the procurator appears and washes his hands, trying in vain to cleanse himself of complicity in the crime. This legend may be related to the scene of the last chapter - a rocky peak, where the Master meets P.P. and absolves his sin. As for the plot motifs composed by Bulgakov himself, this is the involvement of the procurator in the murder of Judas. According to the gospels, he hanged himself. Considering the image of P.P. from the point of view of literary genealogy, one can point to the traces of Ahasuerus. There are grounds for comparison with the image of Pushkin's Boris Godunov: the motif of a stain on conscience that appeared by chance and became the cause of mental anguish, so painful that "I'm glad to run, but nowhere." Among Bulgakov's heroes there is no other character comparable in scale to P. P. , although some of its features can be caught in Khludov ("Flight"), in Louis ("The Cabal of the Holy Ones"). In Bulgakov's novel, P.P. personifies the collision of hierarchical power, unlimited in relation to everything below and completely defenseless, unarmed before which is higher. This makes the hegemon of Rome socially cowardly. The latter is all the more striking because cowardice is shown by a person who is courageous, firm and cruel by nature. If cowardice is generally the worst of vices (the words of Yeshua Ha-Nozri), then in the strong it is also shameful. This is the main idea of ​​the writer in reading the image of Pontius Pilate, the hero who covered himself with historical shame.

This article is an essay on the topic: "The image of Pontius Pilate in Bulgakov's novel" The Master and Margarita ".

Our first introduction to Pontius Pilate in The Master and Margarita takes place in the second chapter. There we also learn about Yeshua Ha-Notsri, a wandering philosopher who was sentenced to death as an instigator of conspiracies, but Pilate, a Roman procurator and a man of great power, must decide the fate of Ga-Notsri.

At the very beginning, Pilate treats Yeshua as an ordinary bandit, whom he has seen enough in his lifetime. Yeshua even gets lashed as a punishment for calling Pilit “a good man”, while calling the procurator can only be “Hegemon”.
However, further Pelit's attitude towards the arrested person changes greatly.
The procurator learns that Yeshua knows several languages, which greatly surprised Pilate. Further, Ha-Notsri told Pilate about the pain in his head, which had not left the procurator since the morning, and predicted that it would soon pass. Pilate was incredibly surprised, because he actually had a terrible headache, and suddenly (as Yeshua said) the pain stopped.

Ha-Notsri also told that the procurator is very lonely and there is only one creature to which he is attached - the dog of the procurator. This turned out to be true again.
It was the greatest audacity to speak in such a form as a Roman procurator, but Pilate was so impressed by the knowledge of the arrested person that he even ordered him to free his hands. It seemed to the procurator that Yeshua must have been a doctor, since he was able to quickly determine his illness, but he was not a doctor.

Here Pilate has the idea that it is necessary to save the wandering philosopher. He will conclude that Yeshua is mentally ill and does not deserve the death penalty, however
Pilate receives a second bottom on the defendant. During interrogation, Yeshua calls any power - violence against people. These words do not please the Procurator.

Pilate pronounces the death sentence on Yeshua Ha-Nozri, and this was a sentence that the Roman procurator will regret until the end of his days. A verdict that was pronounced on an innocent person only because the release of the defendant could call into question his high office, from the duties of which Pilate could not evade.
This wandering philosopher became the dearest person for him, and, realizing this, Pilate still hoped for the salvation of Yeshua, because. according to the rules, one of the four prisoners should be released at the will of the high priest, but he decided to give freedom to another prisoner, and no matter how Pilate tried to influence the decision of the high priest, nothing came of it.

The Roman procurator, endowed with enormous strength and power, showed weakness by sending to death not a criminal, but a person who was so important and dear to him.

In the works of Russian writers, the problem of power and the responsibility associated with it occupies a special place. After all, literature is for any thinking and talented person a way to express their attitude to reality and an opinion about how it should be. That is why writers portray the powerful of this world, and not always in the form that would be convenient and beneficial to the latter. Those in power and their actions are often opposed to various aspects of society, primarily its moral standards.

This is exactly what we see when analyzing the image of Pontius Pilate, one of the main characters in the novel The Master and Margarita. How does he appear to the reader? “In a white cloak with bloody lining” - this is the first phrase with which the author describes his hero, the fifth procurator of Judea. And this phrase, despite its brevity, contains a deep symbolic meaning. However, in order to draw any conclusions, it is necessary to figure out who the procurator is.

The "novel within a novel" written by the Master takes place in the times described in the New Testament. Judea at that time was under the rule of the Roman Empire. Procurator - this was the name of the position of the governor of Rome in the captured state, in fact, the first person in Judea.

The colors of the procurator's cloak symbolically characterize Roman power. White is her dominant color. It means greatness, and in addition - purity and infallibility. Not only the lords of antiquity, but also of later eras, liked to hide behind such concepts: it was not for nothing that Woland said that people had not changed at all in two thousand years. The red lining, that is, the lining, symbolizes, as it were, the reverse side of power. It is no coincidence that Bulgakov chose not the word “red” or “scarlet” to describe the color, but “bloody”. Thus, even the first phrases describing Pontius Pilate characterize the power that he represents, and therefore outline what kind of person can embody it.

The next characteristic of the procurator is the description of his movements: he walked with a "shuffling cavalry gait." This seemingly insignificant detail is not very important, as it testifies that the procurator is a military man, a soldier. Of course, this also leaves an imprint on his character and makes the image more complete, as well as a dislike for the smell of rose oil and the headaches associated with it.

However, these are all external characteristics. The author gives us the opportunity to look into the soul of his hero much deeper. Who is he? Indeed, this is an old soldier who went through the war. He was awarded his high appointment not for nobility, because his mother was the daughter of a miller, which means that she was a commoner. He received his post for his own merits, and perhaps for sins: it is not for nothing that he does not like the country he is forced to rule.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that this stern person values ​​loyalty above all else. That is why he has only one close creature in the world, and even that is not a person. Banga is the procurator's dog, a huge and fearless beast, infinitely trusting his master: from a thunderstorm, the only thing he is afraid of, the dog seeks protection from the procurator.

However, the company of a dog can be enough for just a person, especially a closed one, but neither the commander, who was Pilate, nor the politician who he had to become, is enough. One way or another, he needs dedicated people who can be trusted. That is why he brought the centurion Mark Ratslayer closer to him, with whom he went through the war together. This man is valuable to the procurator in the same way as a dog - devotion: after all, once Pilate saved his life. True, at the moment of salvation, in battle, he hardly thought that he had found himself a devoted servant. Then it was just a commander who believed that the life of a subordinate was valuable enough to protect. This characterizes Pilate not as a politician or even as a soldier, but as a person.

Mark Ratslayer, for all his devotion, was useful to the procurator only as a soldier. The second person whom Pilate brought close to him was Aphranius, head of the Yershalaim secret police, intelligent, understanding the chief perfectly. Unlike the centurion, he did not owe anything to the procurator. On the contrary, Pilate himself trusted him. This testifies not only to his ability to evaluate people according to their merits, but also to how he changed after meeting Yeshua Ha-Nozri: before that, he hardly trusted people. Best of all, Bulgakov characterizes him through the mouth of Yeshua: “You are too closed and you have finally lost faith in people.”

It was precisely because of this assessment, expressed directly in the eyes, that he became interested in Yeshua, who was brought to him as a defendant. The procurator became curious about who everyone, including even him, his judge, who in Yershalaim was called in a whisper "a ferocious monster", can perceive as a "kind person". After all, he himself did not consider anyone good. However, Pilate was smart enough and able to understand someone else's point of view. Therefore, convinced that even beatings could not change the opinion of his defendant, he began to treat the words of a wandering preacher with interest. This interest led him to ask the defendant questions related not to the essence of the case, but to the philosophy that he preached. And in the end, Pilate came to respect Yeshua and his views.

Did he believe in the God the preacher was talking about? Consciously - no: after all, he did not renounce, like Matthew Levi, his rank, position and wealth. Even the miracle that Yeshua performed, curing the procurator of a headache, did not make him change his religious views. He did not attribute his healing to the category of miracles, but suggested that his defendant was a "great physician." However, even during the trial, thoughts “incoherent and unusual” flashed through his head about “there must certainly be immortality.” This suggests that, without becoming an adherent of the new religion, he believed in his soul what the defendant said.

The procurator admitted that there was a certain amount of truth in Ga-Notsri's words. Pilate was attracted to his philosophy in many ways, and he went on and on asking questions that judges usually do not ask the accused. And he learned and accepted the principles of this philosophy much more fully than Matthew Levi, who considered himself a disciple of Yeshua. After all, the procurator, who had changed and became wiser, quite deservedly reproached the former tax collector: "You did not learn anything from what he taught you."

True, when entering into a discussion with Yeshua, Pilate knew that nothing threatened him: after all, they spoke Greek, a language that no one knew except the two of them. Would the procurator ask questions if this were not so? Perhaps not: after all, he was an experienced politician. Consequently, he perfectly understood that he, the governor of the Roman Empire, was not very much favored by the local authorities - both secular, in the person of King Herod, and religious, represented by the Holy Sanhedrin and its head, High Priest Kaifa. He knew that if the opportunity arose, he would be executed in the same way that Yeshua was going to be executed.

But despite this, he did everything possible to save the preacher. Pilate argued that his guilt was not great, that Ha-Notsri was crazy. How his attitude towards Yeshua has changed since the first meeting can be assessed by the verdict: he proposed replacing the death penalty with “imprisonment in Kasaria Stratonova on the Mediterranean Sea, that is, exactly where the residence of the procurator is.” The simple curiosity that Pilate felt for this unusual person was replaced by sympathy, and he wanted to continue to communicate with him, in fact, taking him to his residence. This is confirmed by the fact that he later proposed the same thing to Matthew Levi, whom he considered an adherent of the philosophy he liked so much.

However, the author himself asks the question: “Do you really ... admit the idea that because of a person who committed a crime against Caesar, the procurator of Judea will ruin his career?” Despite the sympathy that Pontius Pilate felt for Yeshua Ha-Notsri, and the correctness of the preacher, which the procurator had already understood in his soul, he had to announce his death sentence. Indeed, otherwise he risked losing not only his high post, but also his life: the full power of the ruler of the Roman Empire played into the hands of the enemies of the procurator. Pilate could not but attach importance to the accusation of insulting the emperor. And the Small Sanhedrin refused to pardon the preacher, preferring the robber. Pilate was outraged by this decision, but still sent Yeshua to Golgotha. If he had not done so, the same fate might have awaited him. And the procurator, who had greatly changed as a result of philosophical conversations with Ha-Notsri, nevertheless turned out to be not strong enough to consciously go against such dangerous and powerful enemies.

Pontius Pilate was fully aware of his guilt and was ready to atone for it. Not daring to risk his career in reality, in a dream he saw himself capable of this step. Thus, even then he knew that he had committed an unforgivable crime. That is why a previously unsociable person sought the sympathy of Levi Matthew, offering him money or service. That is why he organized the murder of Judah of Kiriath, who had betrayed Yeshua. He really did not have the opportunity to take revenge on Herod and Caifa, but he nevertheless allowed himself a small revenge: a purse thrown into the garden of the high priest should have made him worry.

Should Pilate be blamed for being too weak to defend Yeshua? This question can be answered in different ways, but the opinion of the author should be taken into account. Through the mouth of the Master, Bulgakov granted forgiveness to the former procurator. Why? Because Pilate had already endured the worst punishment: he was never able to find peace, because every minute he remembered his crime. The procurator was punished by his own conscience, making painful that immortality that Pilate had dreamed of even during the trial of Yeshua. And none of those whom the governor brought closer to him could share this punishment with him. Only the faithful dog Banga remained with Pilate, the rest were not close enough to the unsociable, lonely man.

And what about Yeshua himself, did he forgive Pilate? Undoubtedly yes. And he did it even before the Master released the soul of his hero. He forgave the one who condemned him when he said that he “does not blame him for having taken his life”, and sent the message of his forgiveness in the form of a dream in which he walked with Pilate along the moonbeam and promised: “We now we will always be together. This dream confirmed that the procurator had finally realized who "the beggar from En-Sarid" really was, and asked him not to forget "the son of the astrologer king and the miller's daughter, the beautiful Pila." The fifth procurator of Judea believed in Yeshua as in God.

“In the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, in a white cloak with bloody lining, shuffling with a cavalry gait, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, entered the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great.” . M. A. Bulgakov recreated the image of a living person, with an individual character, torn apart by conflicting feelings and passions. In Pontius Pilate we see a formidable ruler before whom everything trembles. He is gloomy, lonely, the burden of life burdens him. The Roman procurator personifies authoritarian power. The type of power embodied in the image of Pontius Pilate turns out to be more humane than Bulgakov's contemporary reality, which assumed complete subjugation of the personality, required merging with it, faith in all its dogmas and myths.

In Pilate, Bulgakov leaves the features of the traditional image. But his Pilate only outwardly resembles this image. “We feel all the time how Pilate is overwhelmed, drowned in his passions.” “More than anything in the world, the procurator hated the smell of rose oil ... It seemed to the procurator that the cypresses and palm trees in the garden exuded a pink smell, that a pink stream was mixed with the smell of leather and convoy.” With special attention and interest, Bulgakov explores the causes of the tragedy that manifest themselves in his thought. Bulgakov deliberately presents Pilate's condition as a debilitating illness. But he takes the morbid state of the procurator beyond the bounds of an attack of hemicrania to a feeling of accumulated weariness from life and the occupation of a business that bored him. “Immersion in the meaninglessness of existence, Pilate’s boundless loneliness is comprehended as a natural consequence of submission to a transpersonal idea that turns a person into a function of power and the state.”

Bulgakov tests him with an act that requires free expression of will. Bulgakov considers the problem of freedom and non-freedom of the human person to be the most important. V. V. Khimich notes that “Bulgakov’s decision is artistically represented by the picture of Pilate’s psychological experience of the internal movement from bondage to freedom that unfolds in the work. Pilate “morning (A. Zerkenov’s definition) rules over personal truth, his lack of freedom, clearly not realized by him, is as if marked by a tragic sign both on his outward appearance and the type of forced introduction into the world that rejects him” The writer notes “bloody lining” Pilate's cloak and his "shuffling gait". Bulgakov collects from individual strokes a psychological portrait of a man destroyed by lack of freedom.

The writer showed that the contradictions of Pontius Pilate manifest themselves differently in each situation. Every time he reveals himself from an unexpected side. One artistic idea that is constantly felt when revealing the image of Pontius Pilate is “the idea of ​​determinism, the complete dependence of the actions of heroes, including Pontius Pilate, on the circumstances of life.”

In 1968, the American literary critic L. Rzhevsky published an article “Pilates' sin: about cryptography in M. Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita”. In an effort to decipher the historical concept of the "most ancient chapters". Rzhevsky came to the conclusion that their structural core is the theme of Pilate's guilt, "Pilates' sin." The "existential cowardice" of the procurator is placed at the center of the secret writing of the entire novel, penetrating all its components.

The Roman procurator is the first, albeit unwitting, opponent of Christian teaching. “Here he is similar,” as B.V. Sokolov notes, “to his functional double Satan, i.e. the Antichrist, Woland, with whom he is related and common to both Germanic origins” And although the text of the novel talks about this, it turns out to be significant in the development of the image of Pilate. The procurator of Judea had already betrayed his people once. “And the memory of this betrayal, the first cowardice that Pilate’s subsequent bravery in the ranks of the Roman troops could not cover, comes to life again when Pilate has to betray Yeshua, becoming cowardly for the second time in his life, subconsciously intensifying the pangs of conscience, the spiritual anguish of the procurator” Pilate and Woland understand the justice of Yeshua's teachings and begin to act in his interests (Pilate organizes the murder of Judas, and before that he tries to save Ha-Nozri; Woland, on behalf of Yeshua, gives the Master a well-deserved reward).

In connection with the question of parallels to the image of Pontius Pilate in the novel, the opinion of V. V. Novikov is interesting, stating that he does not have “twins and heroes with a similar psychology and way of behavior”. However, the persuasiveness of the above arguments of V. V. Sokolov does not allow us to agree with the position of V. V. Novikov.

So, Pilate - the bearer and personification of "the strangest vice" - cowardice, as it becomes clear already to the first critics - the central character of the novel, present not only in the "Yershalaim" chapters, but - invisibly both in the narrative of Soviet reality and in history Masters and Margaritas.

In the collection of reviews of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR IKION, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of M. Bulgakov, one of the authors argues that The Master and Margarita is a novel about the life of Pilate and in terms of composition represents two crosswise intersecting axes. One axis - vertical, on one pole of which is Christ, on the other - the devil, and between them a man rushes about - typical of the European novel. However, in Bulgakov it is crossed by another, horizontal one, and at one end of it is a person endowed with the gift of creativity, the Master. On his right hand is Christ, that is, the principle of goodness, which allows him to create. On the left hand of the Master is the devil, for "only the devilish beginning gives a person - the creator of the Master the opportunity to penetrate the heaviest, most terrible, darkest secrets of the human soul." At the opposite pole of this axis, according to the critic, is “human rubbish”. In the center of this compositional cross is the protagonist of the novel, Pontius Pilate, “hopelessly, hopelessly” reaching out to all four poles. Pilate fell in love, but did not save Christ, fearing for his well-being, succumbing to the devil's obsession. He is between fear and love, duty and meanness. On the other hand, he is a major official, smart and strong-willed - not a nonentity, but also not a talented person, not a creator. He performs a good deed twice - a feat not with a capital letter, but not in quotation marks, not of Christ and not of the devils - a feat worthy of the position of an administrator - a soldier that he occupies: "In both cases, he gives the order to kill" sending a person to following Judas and commanding to hasten the death of Yeshua. For "Pilatism" - "that is, the inability to accomplish a real, full-fledged feat, in which there would be no question of oneself, of one's fate" (p. 168), "Pilatism", dissolved in the air of the era contemporary to the writer, and crucifies the fifth procurator of Judea in the very center of the compositional cross M. Bulgakov.

In the Row of contemporary writers, Bulgakov stands as the deepest researcher who focused his attention on the phenomenon of “breakage” in human destiny and the psyche. Biographical, historical, eternal time are taken by the writer under the sign of strange displacements and destructive processes. M. Bulgakov concentrated the action of the novel around two characters - Yeshua and Pilate.

The official duties of Pontius Pilate brought him together with the accused from Galilee, Yeshua Ha-Nozri. The procurator of Judea is ill with a debilitating disease, and the vagabond is beaten by the people to whom he preached sermons. The physical suffering of each is proportional to their social positions. Almighty Pilate unreasonably suffers from such headaches that he is even ready to take poison: “The thought of poison suddenly flashed temptingly in the sick head of the procurator.” And the poor Yeshua, although beaten by people in whose kindness he is convinced and to whom he carries his teaching about goodness, nevertheless does not suffer from this at all, for physical teachings only test and strengthen his faith. Yeshua is at first entirely in the power of Pilate, but then, during the interrogation, as V. I. Nemtsev notes, “itself revealed the spiritual and intellectual superiority of the prisoner and the initiative of the conversation easily passes to him”: “I came up with some new thoughts that could, of course, seem liberal to you, and I would gladly share them with you, especially since you give the impression of a very intelligent person. The procurator's first interest in the tramp was revealed when it turned out that he knew the Greek language, which was spoken only by educated people of that time: “The swollen eyelid (of the procurator - T. L.) lifted, the eye covered with a haze of suffering stared at the arrested person.”

Throughout the "historical" part of the novel "The Master and Margarita" Pontius Pilate is shown as the bearer of practical reason. Morality in him is suppressed by an evil principle; in the life of the procurator, apparently, there was little good (only Judas can fall below Pilate, but the conversation about him in the novel is short and contemptuous, as, incidentally, about Baron Meigel). Yeshua Ha-Nozri personifies the triumph of the moral law. It was he who awakened a good beginning in Pilate. And this kindness induces Pilate to take a spiritual part in the fate of the wandering philosopher.

Yeshua demonstrates an extraordinary ability to foresee and understand everything - thanks to his high intellectual abilities and ability to make logical conclusions, as well as boundless faith in the high mission of his teaching: “The truth is, first of all, that your head hurts, and it hurts so much that you faint-heartedly think about death. Not only are you unable to speak to me, but it is difficult for you to even look at me.<...>You can't even think of anything and only dream of your dog coming, apparently the only creature to which you are attached.

V. I. Nemtsev draws our attention to a very important point: “... Almighty Pilate recognized Yeshua as his equal (underlined by the author). And became interested in his teachings. What follows is no longer an interrogation, not a trial, but a misfortune of equals, during which Pilate pursues an intention that is practically sound in this situation to save the philosopher who has become sympathetic to him: “... A formula has developed in the now bright and light head of the procurator. It was as follows: Hegemon examined the case of the vagrant philosopher Yeshua, nicknamed Ha-Notsri, and did not find corpus delicti in it.<...>The wandering philosopher turned out to be mentally ill. As a result of this, the death sentence of Ga-Notsri ... the procurator does not approve.

But he is unable to overcome the fear of Kaifa's debt. At the same time, the procurator is seized with a vague foreboding that the condemnation and execution of the wandering preacher Yeshua Ha-Nozri will bring him great misfortune in the future: “Thoughts rushed short, incoherent and unusual: “Perished!”, Then: “Perished! ..” And what a then completely obscure among them about some must certainly be - and with whom ?! - immortality, and immortality for some reason caused unbearable longing.

However, the philosopher constantly exacerbates the situation. Apparently, oaths for him, always speaking only the truth, do not make sense. That is why, when Pilate invites him to swear, no more, no less, as for the interrogation protocol, Yeshua is very animated ”: he foresees a dispute - his element, where it will be possible to speak more fully.

Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri are discussing human nature. Yeshua believes in the presence of goodness in the world, in the predestination of historical development leading to a single truth. Pilate is convinced of the inviolability of evil, its ineradicability in man. Both are wrong. At the end of the novel, they continue their two-thousand-year dispute, not on the moonlit road, which brought them together forever; so evil and good merged together in human life. This unity of theirs is personified by Woland - "the embodiment of the tragic inconsistency of life."

Pilate reveals himself as an antagonist to Yeshua. Firstly, he shows even whiter the worst, “according to the“ author ”of the novel ... than laziness, and even multiplied either by fear, natural for every living being, or by a false desire to justify a moral mistake, mainly to oneself , crime” Besides, secondly, Pilate lies simply out of habit, also manipulating the word “truth”: “I don’t need to know whether it’s pleasant or unpleasant for you to tell the truth. But you will have to tell it, although he knows that Yeshua has already told the truth, and he also feels that Yeshua will tell the rest, disastrous for himself, the truth in a minute. And Yeshua passes judgment on himself, revealing to Pilate his impudent utopia: the end of imperial dominion, of Caesar's power, will come. The conscience of an evil and cruel person is awakened. Yeshua's dream to speak with Ratslayer in order to stir up a kind heart in them has surpassed itself: an even more formidable and evil person succumbed to the influence of goodness.

In the novel, the image of Pontius, the dictator, is decomposed and transformed into a suffering person. The power in his person loses the stern and faithful executor of the law, the image acquires a humanistic connotation. However, it is quickly replaced by Woland's judgments about divine power. Pilate does not conduct divine providence, but chance (headache). The dual life of Pilate is the inevitable behavior of a man squeezed in the grip of power, his post. During the trial of Yeshua, Pilate, with greater force than before, feels in himself a lack of harmony and a strange loneliness. From the very collision of Pontius Pilate with Yeshua, in a dramatic multidimensional way - Bulgakov's idea clearly follows from the fact that tragic circumstances are stronger than people's intentions. Even such rulers as the Roman procurator are not in a position to act according to their own will.

“The all-powerful Roman procurator Pontius Pilate,” says V. V. Novikov, “is forced to submit to circumstances, to agree with the decision of the Jewish high priest, to send Yeshua to execution.” T. M. Vakhitova holds the opposite point of view: “Pontius is only concerned that after Yeshua, there is no person who could so easily relieve an attack of a headache and with whom it would be possible to talk with such freedom and mutual understanding about philosophical and abstract questions.

There is an element of truth in each of these points of view. On the one hand, one should not overly idealize the image of Pilate, justify him, and on the other, one should not underestimate him unnecessarily. This is indicated by the text of the novel: “The same incomprehensible longing ... permeated his being. He immediately tried to explain it, and the explanation was strange: it seemed vaguely to the procurator that he did not finish something with the convict, or maybe he did not listen to something.

The feeling of guilt, responsibility for some critical moments of his own life, constantly tormented Bulgakov, served as the most important impulse in his work from early stories and The White Guard to The Theatrical Novel. This autobiographical motif leads with many threads to Pilate - here is fear, and the “wrath of impotence”, and the motive of the defeated, and the Jewish theme, and the passing cavalry, and, finally, tormenting dreams and the hope for final forgiveness, for the desired and joyful dream, in in which the tormenting past will be crossed out, everything is forgiven and forgotten.

The moral position of the individual is constantly in the center of Bulgakov's attention. Cowardice combined with lies as a source of betrayal, envy, malice and other vices that a moral person is able to keep under control is a breeding ground for despotism and unreasonable power. “So, the flaws of a great society, obviously, lied and Bulgakov, depend on the degree of fear that owns citizens.” “He (fear) is able to turn a smart, courageous and benevolent person into a miserable rag, to weaken and defame. The only thing that can save him is inner steadfastness, trust in his own mind and the voice of his conscience. ” Bulgakov uncompromisingly leads the idea of ​​the irreparability of what happened: Pilate, who is already aware of the wrongness of his judgment, he carries away along the wrong path to the end, forcing him to take a step that finally tightens him into the abyss: contrary to his desire, contrary to his already maturing knowledge that he would destroy himself, “the procurator solemnly and dryly confirmed that he approved the death sentence of Yeshua Ha-Nozri.” Bulgakov forces Pilate, already aware of the injustice of his trial, to read the death sentence himself. This episode is made in truly tragic colors. The scaffold on which the procurator ascends is like a place of execution on which the “blind Pilate” executes himself, most of all afraid to look at the condemned. Poetic contrasts: high and low, scream and dead silence of the human sea, confrontation between the invisible city and the lonely Pilate. “... The moment came when it seemed to Pilate that everything around him had completely disappeared. The city he hated has died, and only he stands, burned by sheer rays, resting his face on the sky. And further: “Here it seemed to him that the sun, ringing, burst over him and flooded his ears with fire. A roar, squeals, groans, laughter and whistles raged in this fire. All this forms the ultimate psychological tension, scenes in which Pilate is rapidly moving towards the terrible moment, carefully trying to delay its approach. The scene, interpreted by the author as a crash, a catastrophe, an apocalypse, is accompanied by an emotional decline, a kind of measured narration associated with the exhaustion of the conflict.

“The fateful act that resolves the situation of choice introduces the hero into the zone of experiencing tragic guilt, into the circle of his most terrible contradiction with the human in himself.” It is the “existential aspect of guilt” that is important in Bulgakov's psychological analysis.

Bulgakov includes psychological analysis in the process of "testing ideas". The picture of the mental anguish of Pontius Pilate, which became the result of the moral crime of the procurator, who crossed the limit of humanity, unfolded in The Master and Margarita, is, in essence, a verification and confirmation of the truth of the thoughts expressed by the wandering philosopher, for which the hegemon sent him to execution: “... Procurator he struggled to understand the cause of his mental anguish. And he quickly realized this, but tried to deceive himself. It was clear to him that this afternoon he had irretrievably missed something, and now he wants to correct what he missed by some petty and insignificant, and most importantly, belated actions. The deception of himself lies in the fact that the procurator tried to convince himself that these actions ... were no less important than the morning sentence. But the procurator was very bad at it.”

Yeshua's assertion, far removed from the everyday life of a procurator, that "it is easy and pleasant to speak the truth" unexpectedly turns into truth, outside of which the existence of the enlightened Pilate becomes unthinkable. In Yeshua there is no contradiction between the temporal and the eternal - that's what makes the image absolute. Pilate's complex consists in the gap between the temporal (the power of the emperor Tiberius and commitment to him) and the eternal (immortality). "Cowardice" - this is the name of this complex in everyday terms, it is also comprehended by the author in terms of ontology. “Sacrifice of the eternal to the temporal, universal to the momentary - the most general meaning of “pilatism”

By killing Judas, Pilate not only cannot atone for his sin, but he is not even able to tear out the roots of Caifa's conspiracy, and in the end the wives of the Sanhedrin achieve, as you know, a change of procurator. Pilate and Aphranius are likened to the first followers of the new religion in a parody. The planned or murder of a traitor is so far the first and only consequence of the preaching and the most tragic fate of Yeshua, as if demonstrating the failure of his calls for good. The death of Judas does not remove the burden from the conscience of the procurator. Yeshua was right. Not a new murder, but deep, sincere repentance for what he had done, finally brings Pilate forgiveness. Making a decision and thus denying endless internal questions, Pilate plunges into the abyss of atrocities. Bulgakov is merciless to his hero: he cruelly forces him to go through his criminal path to the end. Pilate seeks to mitigate his guilt before himself or to transfer it outside. Pilate will make senseless attempts to nullify the strange meaning of his decision, but each time he will be thrown back.

Pilate revealed to the Master the “secret” of the “devilish nature of reality” and a particle of his own inner life connected with it: can he resist this reality, relying on an inner sense of truth, and if so, how? How good should act, for action as a means in the accessible physical world is diabolical in nature and in the process of its implementation will surely destroy the goal that is being sought. And here it turns out that it is impossible to protect the good, it has not developed its own mode of action, and this is felt by Bulgakov as “washing hands”, “bad pilatching” (cowardice), betrayal. The feeling of personal guilt for some specific actions, having dissolved in creativity, was replaced by a more general feeling of guilt of the artist who made a deal with Satan; this shift in the consciousness of a person is clearly revealed in the novel in the fact that it is the Master who releases Pilate, declaring him free, and himself remains in the “eternal shelter”. B. M. Gasparov writes: “A person who silently allowed a murder to take place before his very eyes is forced out by an artist who silently looks at everything that happens around him from a “beautiful distance” (another one is Gogol’s version of the Faustian theme, which is very significant for Bulgakov), - Pilate gives way to the Master. The guilt of the latter is less tangible and concrete, it does not torment, it does not rise constantly with obsessive dreams, but this guilt is more general and irreversible - eternal.

By repentance and suffering, Pilate atones for his guilt and receives forgiveness. It is hinted that Pontius Pilate is himself a victim. Such an observation was made in this regard by B. M. Gasparov: the appearance before Pilate's eyes of a vision - the head of the emperor Tiberius, covered with ulcers, perhaps, is a reference to the apocryphal story, according to which the sick Tiberius learns about the miraculous doctor - Jesus, demands him to himself and , having heard that Jesus was executed by Pilate, becomes furious and orders the execution of Pilate himself. This version contains a very important motive for Bulgakov - betrayal as the immediate cause of death, turning the traitor into a victim and allowing these roles to be synthesized.

V. V. Potelin notes “two plans in the development of the action, which reflects the struggle of the two principles living in Pilate. And that which can be defined as spiritual automatism acquires fatal power over him for some time, subordinating all his actions, thoughts and feelings. He's losing control of himself." We see the fall of the human, but then we also see the rebirth in his soul of the genes of humanity, compassion, in a word, a good start. Pontius Pilate commits a merciless judgment on himself. His soul is overflowing with good and evil, leading an inevitable struggle between themselves. He is sinful. But it is not sin itself that attracts Bulgakov's attention, but what follows - suffering, remorse, sincere pain.

Pilate lives in a state of tragic catharsis, bringing together immeasurable suffering and enlightenment from gaining the desired truth: “... he immediately set off along the bright road and went up it straight to the moon. He even laughed in his sleep with happiness, before that everything turned out perfectly and uniquely on the ghostly blue road. He was accompanied by Bungui, and next to him was a wandering philosopher.<...>And, of course, it would be absolutely terrible even to think that such a person could be executed. There was no punishment!<...>

We will always be together now, the tattered vagabond philosopher told him in a dream, who, no one knows how, stood on the road of a rider with a golden spear. Once one - then, then, there and then another! If they remember me, they will immediately remember you too! Me - a foundling, the son of unknown parents, and you - the son of the king - the astrologer and the miller's daughter, the beautiful Pila. “Yes, don’t forget, remember me, the son of an astrologer,” Pilate asked in a dream. And, enlisting the nod of the beggar from An-Sarid walking next to him, the cruel procurator of Judea wept and laughed in his sleep with joy.

Bulgakov forgives Pilate, assigning him the same role in his philosophical concept as the Master. Pilate, as a Master, deserves rest for his suffering. Let this peace be expressed in different ways, but its essence is in one 0, everyone gets what he aspires to. Pilate, Yeshua and other characters think and act like people of antiquity, and at the same time turn out to be no less close and understandable to us than our contemporaries. In the finale of the novel, when Yeshua and Pilate continue their thousand-year dispute on the lunar road, it is as if good and evil merge into one in human life. This unity of theirs is personified by Bulgakov's Woland. Evil and good are not generated from above, but by the people themselves, so a person is free in his choice. He is free from fate and from surrounding circumstances. And if he is free to choose, then he is fully responsible for his actions. This is, according to Bulgakov, a moral choice. And it is the theme of moral choice, the theme of personality in "eternity" that determine the philosophical orientation and depth of the novel.

V.V. Khimich calls the long-awaited walk along the “lunar road” the apotheosis of a man’s courageous victory over himself. The Master “released the hero he had created. This hero has gone into the abyss, gone forever, forgiven on Sunday night, the son of the astrologer king, the cruel fifth procurator of Judea, the equestrian Pontius Pilate.

It is impossible not to note the similarity of the events taking place in the "internal" and "external" novel, the history of the main characters of both these sections - Yeshua and the Master. This is, in particular, the situation of the city, which did not accept and destroyed the new prophet. However, against the backdrop of this parallelism, there is an important difference. Yeshua in the novel is opposed by one, and moreover, a large personality - Pilate. In the "Moscow" version, this function turns out to be dispersed, as it were, fragmented into many "little" Pilates, insignificant characters - from Berlioz and the critics of Lavrovich and Latunsky to Styopa Likhodeev and that character completely without a name and face (we see only his "blunt-toed shoes "and" weighty ass "in the basement window), which instantly disappears upon the news of the arrest of Aloisy Mogarych"

The line Pilate - Berlioz passes through malevolent heroes, in whom, according to V. I. Nemtsev, practical reason suppresses moral potential. True, Archibald Archibaldovich, Poplavsky, partly Rimsky, still had intuition, but others have outlived it in themselves. And the line Judas - Meigel is very short. The enemies of Yeshua and the Master form a triad: Judas from Cariath, who works in a shop with relatives, - Baron Meigel, who serves in a spectacular company "in the position of acquainting foreigners with the sights of the capital." - Aloisy Magarych, journalist. All three are traitors. Judas betrays Yeshua, Mogarych betrays the Master, Meigel betrays Woland and his entourage, including the Master and Margarita (although unsuccessfully): “Yes, by the way, Baron,” Woland said, suddenly lowering his voice intimately, “rumors spread about your extraordinary curiosity.<...>moreover, evil tongues have already dropped the word earphone and spy.”

Another of these "pilatiks" - Nikanor Ivanovich Bogost - is also a "through" hero, who completes the gallery of Bulgakov's building managers: "Baramkovo chairman" from "Memories", Yegor Innushkin and Christ from "House of Elps", Shvonder from "Heart of a Dog", Halleluey Harness from Zoya's apartment. Apparently, Bulgakov suffered from the building managers and chairmen of the housing association: each of Bosoy's predecessors, and even Nikanor Ivanovich himself, are sharply negative, satirical characters.

The story with the surrender of currency is not accidental and not invented. Such "golden nights" actually took place in the early 1930s. It was lawlessness, but an inevitable test, after which innocent people suffered. If the master is an incomplete likeness of Yeshua, then nameless editors, writers awarded “nowhere leading names (according to Florensky), officials like Styopa Likhodeev and Bosoy are all little procurators whose only content in life is cowardice and lies. There was nothing human left in Styopa Likhodeev. “His living space was therefore entirely occupied by shadow, negative, “impure” doubles. His "bottom".

The swindler - bartender vdarite, Andrey Dokich Sokov, day and night thinks how to justify himself before the auditor, who will cover him, selling rotten meat under the guise of "second freshness". And he always has an excuse. Thinking thinks, but does not speak out loud. Here Woland pronounces his famous aphorism: “The second freshness is nonsense! There is only one freshness - the first, it is also the last.

All these people are trying to establish an orderly, hierarchically structured world, which rests on authorities, on regulations, they are trying to set stereotypes of behavior for the mass person. “But their strength is the strength of conformism, which does not penetrate into the depths of the human soul.” However, they understand the illusory nature of their reasons, they lie to others and to themselves “out of office”, knowing that their “values” are conditional. Each of them has a headache in his own way, exhausted in conflict with the victorious, indomitable hostile; and each of them eventually submits to him. Pilate turns into a "Pilatiska" - a word invented by Levrovich during the campaign of persecution of the Master and characterizing as if (as Lavrovich thinks) exactly the Master (just as Yeshua in Yershalaim receives the "official" name "robber and rebel"). In reality, Lavrovich (like Berlioz before), without knowing it, utters a prophetic word about himself and his world.