The Motives of the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita

The aim of this article is an attempt to reveal the motives of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. The key in this case is the motive of Orpheus' entering Hell in order to save his beloved, to set her free from the Kingdom of Darkness. A serious body of research devoted to the novel by both Russian and foreign literary scholars, theologians, philosophers has been used in the study. The following methods were used: cultural and historical method (it was important to trace the influence of society on the novel, its perception and interpretation), the method of mythopoetic analysis, which is based on the idea of the myth as a decisive factor in all artistic products of the humankind. The author believes that there are many structural and substantive elements of the Orpheus myth in the novel, which are decisive for the understanding and evaluation of this work. Methods of intertextual analysis and literary hermeneutics were also applied. The study includes a number of stages. At the first of them, an attempt was made to identify the subjects of the novel that, one way or another, make a descent into hell. Conclusions are drawn on the connection of the novel with this myth. Getting into the underworld, undoubtedly, is always an initiation. The character returns to the world of the living other than he was before. At the end of the novel, the characters are not what they used to be. Katabasis influences the survivors; the chaos of the world of the dead is transferred to our world. The characters of the novel pay for the acquisition of the sacred knowledge. It is noted that the Master (his going down to Hell for the word) and Margarita (as a result of inversion becomes a leader for her beloved) perform the role of Orpheus at one stage or another. Орфические мотивы в романе М. А. Булгаква «Мастер и Маргарита» 181 At the second stage, the author tried to justify the existing, though not universal, view that it was Woland who ordered the novel. He does not have the gift of creativity so he needs an author. The Master is only the medium who is deprived of the will to resist. The Ershalaim chapters describe the Gospel events from Woland's perspective. The reward for the Master and, with him, for Margarita is not the light, but the “torture of rest”. At the third stage, the author tried to prove the thesis that Bulgakov himself plays the role of Orpheus creating his novel. He performs the original mission of the poet - brings Eurydice (Psyche) to light, and tries to find an adequate word for her unspeakable, intimate content. Thus, it is not the similarity of the conflicts of the myth and the novel (the “immersion in darkness” metaphor) that is observed. The similarity in this case is conceptual. The search, rescue and deliverance from obscurity of the truth (of Psyche, or Eurydice) is the key motif of the novel, which is represented in different plot lines.

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