Analysis of an episode from Yeshua's Master and Margarita. System of images of the novel

Lesson topic.

Analysis of the episode “Interrogation in the Palace of Herod the Great” from M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”.

Goals.

1. Check your knowledge of the content of the novel as a whole, mastery of its features creative manner M. Bulgakov.

2. Explore the details of the story and ways to reveal the characters’ characters.

Equipment. Reproductions of paintings by N. Ge. Presentation.

During the classes.

I . Organizing time.

II. introduction teachers.

The novel “The Master and Margarita” is the most talented work of M. Bulgakov, in which philosophy, psychologism, high tragedy, melodrama, farce.

From the huge mass of a multifaceted work, let us take for analysis an episode from the Yershalaim chapters of the novel, created based on a well-known biblical story.

They rise in it eternal problems, existing in the present in the same way as many centuries ago.

What are these problems? Let's name them.

- What is truth?

Man and power

Inner freedom and unfreedom of man

Good and evil, their eternal opposition and struggle

Loyalty and betrayal

Mercy and forgiveness

III . Analysis of the episode according to plan:

1. General ideas, motives, keywords, combining this episode with the problems of the novel.

2. Characters of heroes and ways of revealing them.

4. A turn in the hero’s relationship.

6. Originality linguistic means, artistic techniques, serving the embodiment of the author's idea.

1.

In this episode, which we will be working on today, these philosophical and ethical problems are revealed through the heroes of the novel written by the Master, Pontius Pilate and Yeshua.

What do we learn about them in Chapter 2?

Yeshua is 27 years old. He is a wandering philosopher. His mother is a woman of questionable behavior, his father is Syrian. There is one student who inaccurately and indistinctly writes down some of the teacher’s words and thoughts. No one knew that he entered Yershalaim.

Pontius Pilate is the procurator of Judea, who has unlimited power.

2.

A portrait is one of the ways to reveal the character of a hero, in it the author reflects internal state, spiritual world of the person depicted.

How do these heroes appear to us? What did you conclude as a result of your observation?

We are not talking about the son of God, Yeshua is a simple man.

Pontius Pilate is not afraid of blood: he, who has a “cavalry gait,” fearless warrior, it’s not for nothing that he was nicknamed “Horseman of the Golden Spear.” But, probably, he is like that not only in relation to enemies in battle. He himself is ready to repeat about himself what others say about him: “a ferocious monster.” And the author will talk about his suffering, constantly referring to one detail of his portrait - his eyes.

How do his eyes change?

3.

The basis of the episode is the dialogue between Pontius Pilate and Yeshua. Each remark and action of the heroes acquire a universal meaning, carry general idea works and develop it.

What is the speech of the heroes? What do we learn about them from it?

Pontius Pilate uses different languages for interrogation: Aramaic, Latin, Greek.

Yeshua understands the procurator.

The interrogated person often uses the word “kind person”.

Pontius Pilate spoke softly, monotonously, did not raise his voice, and when it came to the power of Caesar, a strangled, angry voice appeared.

How it reveals itself through all this state of mind heroes?

Pontius Pilate is contradictory: strong personality and a man tormented by a disease from which there is no salvation. The procurator becomes sympathetic to Yeshua and decides to save him from punishment and bring him closer to himself.

Yeshua knows how to convince people.

Pontius Pilate is internally unfree.

4.

Worldview of the heroes.

What is truth?

The truth, first of all, is that Pilate has a headache.

How does Yeshua develop this concept?

For him, the truth is that no one can dispose of his life; for him, the truth is that “ evil people not in the world." He is ready to move towards the truth with the help of conviction and words. This is his life's work.

After this part of the conversation, Pontius Pilate makes a decision in favor of Yeshua.

Which?

Announce wandering philosopher mentally ill, without finding any corpus delicti in his case, and, having removed him from Yershalaim, subjected him to imprisonment there. Where was the residence of the procurator located? You want to keep such a person with you.

At what point will Pontius Pilate's mood change?

How does Pilate see Caesar?

Power is violence over people and that the time will come when there will be no power either by Caesars or by any other power. Man will move into the kingdom of truth.

Does Pilate accept this truth?

What happened to the procurator? What is he scared of?

Coward then. When it comes to Caesar, power. For Pilate, the place he occupies is a “golden cage.” He is so afraid for himself that he will go against his conscience.

Pontius Pilate is internally unfree, so he betrays Yeshua.

The hero is one of those people who have a conscience.

Understanding. That Yeshua will be forced to pass judgment, he knows in advance that along with the death of the wandering philosopher, his own will come - only a moral one.

5. Let's turn to the reproduction of paintings.

How does the artist interpret this scene?

IV . Conclusion. This episode reflected the main ideals of the novel.

V . Homework . Written analysis episode.

In Chapter 1 of the novel there is practically no exposition or introduction. From the very beginning, Woland's dispute with Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny about the existence of Jesus unfolds. To prove Woland’s correctness, Chapter 2 of “Pontius Pilate” is immediately placed, which tells about the interrogation of Yeshua by the procurator of Judea. As the reader will later understand, this is one of the fragments of the master’s book, which Massolit curses, but Woland, who retold this episode, knows well. Berlioz would later say that this story “does not coincide with the gospel stories,” and he would be right. In the Gospels there is only a slight hint of Pilate’s torment and hesitation when approving the death sentence of Jesus, and in the master’s book, the interrogation of Yeshua is a complex psychological duel not only of moral goodness and power, but also of two people, two individuals.

Several leitmotif details skillfully used by the author in the episode help reveal the meaning of the fight. At the very beginning, Pilate has a premonition of a bad day due to the smell of rose oil, which he hated. Hence the headache that torments the procurator, because of which he does not move his head and looks like stone. Then - the news that the death sentence for the defendant must be approved by him. This is another torment for Pilate.

And yet, at the beginning of the episode, Pilate is calm, confident, and speaks quietly, although the author calls his voice “dull, sick.”

The next leitmotif is the secretary recording the interrogation. Pilate is burned by Yeshua’s words that writing down words distorts their meaning. Later, when Yeshua relieves Pilate of his headache and he feels affection for the deliverer from pain against his will, the procurator will either speak in a language unknown to the secretary, or even kick out the secretary and the convoy in order to be left with Yeshua alone, without witnesses.

Another symbolic image is the sun, which Ratboy obscured with his rough and gloomy figure. The sun is an irritating symbol of heat and light, and the tormented Pilate is constantly trying to hide from this heat and light.

Pilate's eyes are cloudy at first, but after Yeshua's revelations they shine more and more with the same sparks. At some point, it begins to seem that, on the contrary, Yeshua is judging Pilate. He relieves the procurator of his headache, advises him to take a break from business and take a walk (like a doctor), chides him for the loss of faith in people and the meagerness of his life, then claims that only God gives and takes away life, and not the rulers, convinces Pilate that “ There are no evil people in the world."

The role of the swallow flying into and out of the colonnade is interesting. The swallow is a symbol of life, independent of the power of Caesar, not asking the procurator where to build and where not to build a nest. The swallow, like the sun, is an ally of Yeshua. She has a softening effect on Pilate. From this moment on, Yeshua is calm and confident, and Pilate is anxious, irritated from the painful split. He is always looking for a reason to leave Yeshua, whom he likes, alive: he is either thinking of imprisoning him in a fortress, or placing him in madhouse, although he himself says that he is not crazy, then with glances, gestures, hints, and reticence, he prompts the prisoner with the words necessary for salvation; “For some reason he looked at the secretary and the convoy with hatred.” Finally, after a fit of rage, when Pilate realized that Yeshua is absolutely uncompromising, he powerlessly asks the prisoner: “No wife?” - as if hoping that she could help straighten the brains of this naive and pure person.

“The Hated City” is Pilate’s summary, evidence of his despair that, faithfully serving the power of Caesar and believing in it, it is he who is forced to approve the death sentence of a man who is innocent. Yeshua's inflexibility infuriates Pilate. At this moment, just before the execution was approved, the procurator “with a furious gaze followed the swallow, which again fluttered onto the balcony.”

Pilate made a decision, although he realized that no one else could cure his headache. But he continues to suffer even after the high priest Caiaphas informed him that it was not Yeshua who had been pardoned, but the robber Bar-ravan. It covers inexplicable melancholy, it seems to him that “he didn’t finish talking to the convict about something, or maybe he didn’t listen to the end of something.” He is tormented by the “anger of powerlessness.”

At the moment the execution begins, Pilate squints, “but not because the sun was burning his eyes... For some reason he did not want to see a group of convicts...” When Pilate said that Varavan had been pardoned, “it seemed to him that the sun, ringing, burst over it filled his ears with fire.”

M. Bulgakov shows by all possible means moral victory Yeshua over Pontius Pilate and the cruelty of power that opposes morality, freedom, goodness, even against one’s will.

Yeshua is a hero because he overcame his fear and remained true to himself. Pilate is not a hero, he did not overcome his fear, for him submission to authority and career turned out to be more important than human instinct, conscience, sympathy, sympathy.

The novel "The Master and Margarita" is amazing, mysterious work, which includes two narrative plans: satirical (everyday) and symbolic (biblical). Of the twenty-six chapters of the novel, four are devoted to events biblical history in Bulgakov's interpretation. This is a kind of “novel within a novel.” At the same time, in the biblical story, the writer expresses his cherished philosophical ideas about the confrontation between good and evil. One of the central episodes of the novel is the interrogation of Yeshua by Pontius Pilate. The interrogation scene is depicted in the chapter "Pontius Pilate". The introduction of the procurator begins with detail (“in a white cloak with bloody lining…”). This technique helps the author to show his hero as reliably as possible. The great procurator appears before us not as an official, but as a person with his inherent shortcomings and weaknesses. It is no coincidence that the author says that Pilate hates the smell of rose oil. Inner monologue character indicates his physical torment. Pilate suffers from hemicrania; he constantly experiences severe physical pain and headaches. The procurator's speech is laconic and significant. Enormous power is concentrated in his hands, and Pilate understands this. The spring day on the fourteenth became fateful in his life. On this day he met Yeshua. Pilate had to pronounce his sentence on him. The appearance of Yeshua introduces special lyrical intonations into the novel. What is Yeshua like? A man dressed in an “old blue chiton” with a “white bandage”, wounded and disfigured by abrasions. He is amazingly natural and kind. It is symbolic that the first words he utters are: “Good man! Trust me…". Yeshua does not just answer questions during interrogation, but talks with the procurator as person to person. The naturalness of Yeshua contrasts with the lack of freedom, constraint, and suffering of the procurator. The procurator acts with the usual methods, uses violence, forcing Rat-Slayer to beat Yeshua. Mark the Rat Slayer is a gigantic warrior; he symbolizes the reliance of official power on force, despotism, and the suppression of man. The author subtly plays out each phrase of the characters with intonation. Pontius Pilate is rude, demanding, intolerant. Yeshua is sincere and simple. Formally, we are faced with an interrogation, but its participants gradually move on to natural communication. It is the dialogue between Yeshua and Pontius Pilate that bears a lot of meaning. The internal state of the procurator changes throughout the conversation. At first he is depressed and gloomy. He is burdened by the duties of the hegemon, tormented by an unbearable headache and the sun. It pains him to even look at the accused. He puts his condition above responsibility for the fate of a person. It is not for nothing that Pilate’s depression reaches its climax at the moment when the thought flashed through his mind to immediately execute Yeshua and take poison. The dialogue is subtly combined with inner speech Pilate. Unbeknownst to himself, he asks questions that do not comply with protocol. He seeks to understand the motives behind the behavior of the tramp, who confuses the people: “Why did you, tramp, confuse the people at the market by telling about the truth, about which you have not the slightest idea? What is truth? At this moment, Yeshua utters the key secret words of the entire episode: “The truth, first of all, is that you have a headache...” These words shock the procurator. He understands that in front of him it is far from a common person. He relieves the pain of Pontius Pilate, feels his condition, knows about his only attachment to the dog Bango. Again Bulgakov introduces a detail into the narrative (the procurator’s eyes sparkled with hope). Yeshua confesses to him that he considers all people to be good. This discovery amazed Pilate, who had long lost faith in people. Yeshua's hands were untied. The terrible vision that momentarily gripped the procurator was contrasted with a swallow unexpectedly flying under the arches of the palace. This is a symbol eternal hope. Pilate's plans to save Yeshua according to the law did not come to fruition. This was prevented by the denunciation of Judas from Kiriath. Every movement, every word of Pilate is imbued with inner uncertainty and fear. He appears to the reader as contradictory and suffering. Physical torment (headache, blood rushing to his temples) betrays his mental suffering. Pilate is in disharmony not only with the world, but also with himself. He has forgotten how to believe in people. And Yeshua seems wonderful to him. But the secret of his miracles is kindness, observation, empathy, compassion. The concept of truth is of key importance in the episode. Yeshua sees her in specific manifestations, he sees the good essence of people, no matter what actions they perform towards him. Truth is always concrete. It is transparent to those who seek to see it. People often go to great lengths to distort this truth. They became slaves. The accused speaks of a time when man will return to harmony, become more conscious and will not need kings and armies. Yeshua is calm and harmonious. He lives in harmony with the world and with himself. Yeshua understands the value of life. With his harmony, Yeshua attracts Pilate to himself. Something incredible is happening. The formidable procurator feels sympathy for the condemned prisoner. The episode of Yeshua's interrogation reflects one of the central problems of the novel - the problem of guilt and responsibility. This is the theme of Pontius Pilate. Bulgakov shows that a person always has a choice. But no matter what it is, you will have to bear responsibility for it. The procurator's fear prevented him from acting in accordance with his convictions. Pilate's fault is not that he hastened the execution of Yeshua. If he had done this in accordance with the concept of duty and honor, there would have been no guilt behind him. It's his fault that he didn't do what he should have done. “Hateful city,” the procurator suddenly muttered for some reason and shrugged his shoulders, as if he were cold, and rubbed them, as if washing them... The famous gesture, thanks to which the name of Pilate became a household word, just as the expression “wash your hands of it” became. With this symbolic gesture, Pilate demonstrates his indifferent indifference to what is happening. This gesture is nothing more than a sign of reinsurance. This gesture is a sign of the strongest spiritual movement. The procurator himself does not understand what is happening to him. He does not want Ga-Notsri to be executed, and suffers from the consciousness of his powerlessness. In fact, it is in his power to save the philosopher. He suffers because he does not act as his conscience tells him. This is what the fear that controls his entire being tells him to do. It is for fear that he is subject to trial higher powers. Addressing eternal questions, Bulgakov uses allegory. The main question with which Yeshua addresses his judge is indicative: “If I’m wrong, then prove why I’m wrong, and if I’m right, then why are you scolding me?” Rhetorical questions and appeals help hide quotes from books scripture. The characters' language is individualized, but the author's speech remains emphatically neutral. The images of Pilate and Yeshua are symbolic. In fact, they are opposites to each other, but at the end of the novel they walk together along the endless lunar road. The interrogation scene pits not only two characters against each other, but two life principle, harmony and disharmony, fear and awareness. The issues raised by the author in the conversation between Yeshua and Pilate are eternal questions, which every reader should think about.

The episode “Interrogation in the Palace of Herod the Great” is the core of the second chapter “Pontius Pilate” of the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita". This chapter logically breaks down the first and third chapters, which introduce different descriptions modernity: through a rationalistic representation of the world (Berlioz, Bezdomny) and a view of the world as a set of complex, including supernatural and unpredictable phenomena, and deepens philosophical idea, connecting them, helps the reader formulate the problem of the entire novel. In particular, the scene of the interrogation of the philosopher Yeshua Ha-Nozri, wandering from city to city, by the procurator of Judea, Pontius Iilat, allows us to think about what the world in which we live is like, what is the position and role of man in this world.

Pontius appears "Pilate in a white cloak with a bloody lining, White is a symbol of purity, light, truth; bloody - blood, cruelty, doubt, life in contradictions. The procurator hated the smell of rose oil (later we learn that roses are the favorite flowers of the Master and Margarita) .These details are alarming, and we also learn about the “invincible, terrible disease of hemicrania.” So, Pontius Pilate is the arbiter human destinies, the center of power, he must approve the death sentence of the Sanhedrin, but it is already clear that it will not be easy for this person to take such a step. And here is a criminal in front of him, his hands are tied, there is a large bruise under his left eye, and in the corner of his mouth there is an abrasion with dried blood. But his gaze is not full of fear, but of anxious curiosity, he is not depressed, he is confident in his innocence. He free man. Perhaps, the procurator, announcing the first charge, namely that Yeshua addressed the people with a call to destroy the temple, feels the strength of the prisoner who appeared before him. That is why he is stern, sits like a stone, his lip moves slightly when pronouncing words, and his head is blazing with “hellish pain." The man in him fights with the ruler, the heart with cold calculation. The beginning of the conversation is the words of the arrested man addressed to the hegemon: "Good man..." These words defeated Pontius Pilate, he does not understand how he is, "a ferocious monster," you can call it that. He is angry. The authorities are gaining the upper hand, but right now he is unable to continue the conversation, he asks Ratboy to bring Yeshua out and explain how to talk to him, but not to hurt him. And yet the words “good man” sound victorious The rat striker lightly hit the arrested man, but he instantly fell to the ground.

From pain? From pain too, but more from humiliation, that’s why he asks not to beat him. In further conversation he calls Pilate hegemon so that this humiliation does not happen again. Otherwise, the philosopher is adamant. Doesn't want to admit to something he didn't do. For Pilate, “the easiest thing would be to expel this strange robber from the balcony, uttering only two words: “Hang him.” But the conversation continues, we learn the essence of Yeshua’s crime.

“I, the hegemon, said that the temple of the old faith would collapse and a new temple of truth would be created.” It's about not about creation new faith- faith is blind. From faith to truth, essence human existence- this is the history of humanity. For the great procurator, this is the ravings of a madman. It is not given to man to know the truth, or even what the truth is. But the mind does not listen to Pontius Pilate. He can't help but ask a question, although his tone is ironic. All the more unexpected is the answer: “The truth, first of all, is that you have a headache, and it hurts so much that you are cowardly thinking about death.” It amazes you in that the abstract concept of “truth” becomes alive, material, and here it is - in the pain that debilitates you. Truth turned out to be a human concept; it comes from a person and is closed on him. But Pilate is not able to immediately renounce the usual structure of thought. He cannot believe that human intervention saved him from pain. Compassion relieved suffering.

And then he returns to what initially caused irritation: “Now tell me that you are the one who uses the words “all the time.” good people"? Is that what you call everyone?” “Everyone,” answered the prisoner, “there are no evil people in the world.” Most likely, this statement by M.A. Bulgakov, together with his hero, wants to say that evil is a product of lack of freedom, it makes a person unhappy. Mark the Ratboy “became cruel and callous” because “good people rushed at him like dogs at a bear.” The Procurator of Judea does not agree with the arrested man, but does not contradict him either. And in the “light” head a formula had already formed: “the hegemon examined the case of the wandering philosopher Yeshua, nicknamed Ga-Notsri, and did not find any corpus delicti in it.” He would not have confirmed the death sentence, recognizing Yeshua as mentally ill, if the defendant had not signed it for himself. After all, he was facing a second charge, more serious, since it concerned the Roman emperor. Ha-Nozri violated the “Lese Majesty Law.”

The accused admits that under Judah of Kiriath he expressed his views on state power. A noteworthy scene is in which Pilate gives the opportunity to get out, to escape, to avoid execution if he refutes his words spoken about Caesar. His heart tells him that the salvation of his soul lies in the truth preached by this man. “Dead!”, then: “Dead!” “Listen, Ga-Nozri,” the procurator spoke, looking at Yeshua somehow strangely: the procurator’s face was menacing, but his eyes were alarming, “have you ever said that -something about the great Caesar? Answer! Did you say?.. Or... didn’t... say? “Pilate drew out the word “not” a little longer than was appropriate in court and sent Yeshua an idea that he seemed to want to instill in the prisoner.” But Yeshua did not take advantage of the opportunity given to him by Pilate. “It’s easy and pleasant to speak the truth,” he says and confirms his idea that “all power is violence against people and that the time will come when there will be no power of either the Caesars or any other power. Man will move into the kingdom of truth and justice, where no power will be needed at all.”
Palat is shocked and scared. If he lets go of Yeshua, he will break the usual relationship between him and the power that controls him; he is a slave of Caesar, his position, his career, and although he really wants to save Yeshua, to cross the chains of this slavery is beyond his strength. The words of the procurator sound allegorical: “Do you believe, unfortunate one, that the Roman procurator will release the man who said what you say? Oh gods, gods! Or do you think I’m ready to take your place?” Yeshua, knowing that he would accept death for his convictions, does not refuse the truth, unlike Pilate, who cowardly agrees with the verdict of the Sanhedrin. Two opposites collide philosophical essence peace. One is the world of Pilate, familiar, comfortable, in which people have imprisoned themselves, they suffer in it, but the fear of power is stronger. The other is a world of goodness, mercy, freedom, a world in which a person has the right to doubt, say what he thinks, listen to his heart. And the formidable procurator felt the reality of this world, and everything that seemed unshakable, eternal, collapsed. Ha-Notsri left forever, and Pilate’s entire being was permeated by “an incomprehensible melancholy.” The choice is up to the heroes of the novel, up to the reader.

Subject. The system of images of the novel. Multifaceted, multi-level storytelling: from symbolic (biblical or mythological) to satirical (everyday).

The purpose of the lesson: to analyze the system of images of the novel based on the “biblical” chapters, to show the meaning of the images of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri; show the diversity, multi-level nature of M. Bulgakov’s narrative.

Equipment: portrait of M.A. Bulgakov, text of the novel.

During the classes.

1. Organizational moment.

2. Checking homework.

3. Opening remarks.

M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” is a multi-dimensional and multi-layered work. It combines, closely intertwined, mysticism and satire, the most unrestrained fantasy and merciless realism, slight irony and intense philosophy. As a rule, several semantic, figurative subsystems are distinguished in the novel: everyday, associated with Woland’s stay in Moscow, lyrical, telling about the love of the Master and Margarita, and philosophical, comprehending biblical story through the images of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua, as well as problems of creativity based on the material of the Master’s literary work. One of the main philosophical problems The novel is the problem of the relationship between good and evil: the personification of good is Yeshua Ha-Nozri, and the embodiment of evil is Woland.

The novel “The Master and Margarita” is, as it were, a double novel, consisting of the Master’s novel about Pontius Pilate and a work about the fate of the Master himself, connected with the life of Moscow in the 30s of the 20th century. Both novels are united by one idea - the search for truth and the fight for it.

4. Image of Pontius Pilate

The central and most dramatic character in the “gospel” chapters of the novel is the Roman procurator of Judea Pontius Pilate, who had a reputation as a “fierce monster.” “In a white cloak with a bloody lining and a shuffling cavalry gait, early in the morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, came out into the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great.”

The most important moral and philosophical problems of the novel are associated with the image of Pontius Pilate - the problem of choice, responsibility for one’s actions, power, truth and the meaning of human existence.

How does this problem translate into the chapters on modernity? (Analysis of Chapter 1)

1. Where does the theme of Christ begin?

2. What does Berlioz insist on and why?

3. How does Woland refutes Berlioz’s position?

4. What is the symbolic meaning of Berlioz’s death?

5. How do you understand Woland’s words: “Everyone will be given according to his faith”?

6. How is this idea related to the images of Yeshua and Pilate?

(Berlioz insists that Jesus Christ did not exist, thereby denying his preaching of goodness and mercy, truth and justice, the idea of ​​“good will”. The image of Berlioz is devoid of a moral basis, therefore his “murder” (by a Komsomol member) takes on a deeply symbolic meaning “Everyone is rewarded according to his faith.” Yeshua, the bearer of the truth, gains immortality, and Pontius Pilate, who betrayed the truth, is doomed to eternal suffering.)

Analysis of Chapter 2.

How does his portrait reveal Pilate's character?

What kind of man is Pilate?

Pilate is cruel, he is called a “fierce monster.” And he's proud of it. Behind Pilate big life warrior, full of struggle, hardship, danger. In it, only the strongest, who does not know fear, pity, or compassion, wins. Pilate knows that the winner is always alone, he has no friends, only enemies and envious people. He despises the mob, indifferently sending people to execution.

There is no person next to Pilate with whom he would simply want to talk. The only creature he is attached to is the dog Bunga. Pilate is sure: the world is based on violence and power. But power and greatness do not make him happy.

Pontius Pilate's official duties brought him together with the accused from Gamala, Yeshua Ha-Nozri. The procurator of Judea is sick with a debilitating disease, and the tramp is beaten by the people to whom he preached. The physical suffering of each is proportional to their social positions. Almighty Pilate suffers from such headaches for no reason that he is even ready to take poison: “The thought of poison suddenly flashed seductively in the procurator’s sick head.” And the beggar Yeshua, although beaten by people of whose goodness he is convinced and to whom he carries his teaching about goodness, nevertheless does not suffer at all from this, for physical torment only tests and strengthens his faith.

The appearance of Yeshua Ha-Nozri illuminates the life of Pilate. This man speaks frankly to Pilate, despite the fact that he is physically weak and suffers from beatings. During the interrogation of Yeshua, Pilate suddenly realizes that his mind no longer listens; he asks the accused a question that does not need to be asked in court: “What is truth?”

Pilate decides to save Yeshua from execution, realizing his innocence. Pilate is faced with a choice: to save an innocent wandering philosopher and lose his power, and possibly his life, or to maintain his position by executing an innocent man and acting against his conscience.

What is Pilate doing to prevent Yeshua’s execution from taking place?

How does he behave when it is no longer possible to prevent the execution?

What makes Pilate go against his conscience? (fear, cowardice)

Why is cowardice called the most terrible vice in the novel?

What does Pilate experience after the death of Yeshua? (Pilate's dream ch.26)

What is Pilate's punishment? (Ch. 31)

An awakened conscience forces Pilate to try to save Yeshua by using the tradition of pardon on Easter. Then, when it is no longer possible to prevent the execution, he strives to end the suffering of Yeshua and authorizes the murder of Judas, who betrayed him. But all these attempts do not allow Pilate to atone for his guilt or clear his conscience. Cowardice does not allow a strong and powerful person to make the right moral choice and forces him to retreat from the truth that has been revealed to him. Pilate's punishment is his immortality. The hero hates his immortality, because... this is the immortality of a traitor.

Bulgakov, in the image of Pontius Pilate, recreated a living person, with an individual character, torn by conflicting feelings and passions, within whom there is a struggle between good and evil. Yeshua, initially considering all people to be good, sees in him an unhappy person, exhausted by a terrible illness, withdrawn into himself, lonely. Yeshua sincerely wants to help him. But endowed with power, the powerful and formidable Pilate is not free. Circumstances forced him to pronounce the death sentence on Yeshua. However, this was dictated to the procurator not by the cruelty attributed to him by everyone, but by cowardice - that vice that the wandering philosopher ranks among the “heaviest.”

In the novel, the image of Pontius the dictator is decomposed and transformed into a suffering personality. The authorities in his person lose the stern and faithful enforcer of the law, the image acquires a humanistic connotation. Pilate's dual life is the inevitable behavior of a man squeezed in the grip of power and his post. During the trial of Yeshua, Pilate, with greater force than before, feels a lack of harmony and strange loneliness within himself. From the very collision of Pontius Pilate with Yeshua, Bulgakov's idea that tragic circumstances are stronger than people's intentions dramatically follows. Even such rulers as the Roman procurator do not have the power to act of their own free will.

Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri are discussing human nature. Yeshua believes in the presence of goodness in the world, in the predetermination 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 on the lunar road, which has brought them closer together forever; This is how evil and good merged together in human life.

On the pages of the novel, Bulgakov gives us the truth about how the “people's court” is carried out. Let us remember the scene of the pardon of one of the criminals in honor of Easter. The author does not just depict the customs of the Jewish people. He shows how those undesirable to a few are destroyed by the hands of thousands, how the blood of the prophets falls on the conscience of peoples. The crowd saves the real criminal from death and condemns Yeshua to it. "Crowd! A universal means of murder! A remedy of all times and peoples. Crowd! What should I take from her? Voice of the people! How can you not listen? The lives of departed “inconvenient” people crush like stones, burn like coals. And I want to shout: “It didn’t happen!” Did not have!". But it happened... Both Pontius Pilate and Joseph Caiaphas are real people who left their mark on history.

Evil and good are not generated from above, but by people themselves, therefore man is free in his choice. He is free from both fate and 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. Moral position personalities are constantly in the spotlight of Bulgakov. Cowardice combined with lies as a source of betrayal, envy, anger and other vices that a moral person is able to keep under control is a breeding ground for despotism and unreasonable power. “It (fear) is capable of turning an intelligent, courageous and beneficent person into a pathetic rag, weakening and disgracing him. The only thing that can save him is inner fortitude, trust in his own mind and the voice of his conscience.”

5. Image of Yeshua Ha-Nozri

Yeshua is the embodiment of a pure idea. He is a philosopher, a wanderer, a preacher of goodness, love and mercy. His goal was to make the world a cleaner and kinder place. Yeshua’s philosophy of life is this: “There are no evil people in the world, there are unhappy people.” “A good man,” he addresses the procurator, and for this he is beaten by Ratboy. But the point is not that he addresses people this way, but that he really behaves with every ordinary person as if he were the embodiment of good. The portrait of Yeshua is virtually absent in the novel: the author indicates his age, describes clothing, facial expression, mentions a bruise and abrasion - but nothing more: “...They brought in a man of about twenty-seven. This man was dressed in an old and torn blue chiton. His head was covered with a white bandage with a strap around his forehead, and his hands were tied behind his back. The man had a large bruise under his left eye and an abrasion with dried blood in the corner of his mouth.”

When asked by Pilate about his relatives, he answers: “There is no one. I am alone in the world." But this does not at all sound like a complaint about loneliness. Yeshua does not seek compassion, there is no feeling of inferiority or orphanhood in him.

The power of Yeshua Ha-Nozri is so great and so comprehensive that at first many take it for weakness, even for spiritual lack of will. However, Yeshua Ha-Nozri is not an ordinary person: Woland imagines himself with him celestial hierarchy approximately equal. Bulgakovsky Yeshua is the bearer of the idea of ​​the God-man. The author sees in his hero not only a religious preacher and reformer: the image of Yeshua embodies free spiritual activity. Possessing developed intuition, subtle and strong intellect, Yeshua is able to guess the future, and not just the thunderstorm that “will begin later, in the evening,” but also the fate of his teaching, which is already being incorrectly stated by Levi.

Yeshua is internally free. He boldly says what he considers to be the truth, what he has reached himself, with his own mind. Yeshua believes that harmony will come to the tormented land and the kingdom of eternal spring, eternal love will come. Yeshua is relaxed, the power of fear does not weigh on him. “Among other things, I said,” the prisoner said, “that all power is violence against people and that the time will come when there will be no power of either the Caesars or any other power. Man will move into the kingdom of truth and justice, where no power will be needed at all.” Yeshua bravely endures all the suffering inflicted on him. The fire of all-forgiving love for people burns within him. He is confident that only goodness has the right to change the world. Realizing that he is threatened with the death penalty, he considers it necessary to tell the Roman governor: “Your life is meager, hegemon. The trouble is that you are too closed and have completely lost faith in people.”

Speaking about Yeshua, one cannot fail to mention his unusual name. If the first part - Yeshua - transparently hints at the name of Jesus, then the “cacophony of the plebeian name” - Ha-Notsri - “so mundane” and “secular” in comparison with the solemn church - Jesus, as if called upon to confirm the authenticity of Bulgakov’s story and its independence from evangelical tradition."

Despite the fact that the plot seems complete - Yeshua is executed, the author seeks to assert that the victory of evil over good cannot be the result of social and moral confrontation; this, according to Bulgakov, is not accepted by human nature itself, and the entire course of civilization should not allow it: Yeshua remained alive, he is dead only for Levi, for the servants of Pilate.

The great tragic philosophy of Yeshua's life is that truth is tested and confirmed by death. The tragedy of the hero is his physical death, but morally he wins.

6. Lesson summary.

D.Z.s.69-70, Ind. Assignment: preparing characteristics of heroes: Art. Likhodeeva (7 chapters), Varenukhi (10, 14), Nikan. Iv. Bosogo (9), Poplavsky, barman Sokov (chap. 18), “Suit” and “Glorious Sea” (chap. 17-27)