The story of the Master and Margarita is known even to those who have never read the work of Mikhail Bulgakov. One of the eternal, timeless themes, the theme of love in the novel “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov attracts with its depth and sincerity.

Heroes before they meet each other

Through the mouth of the Master himself, Bulgakov tells us about his life before meeting the heroine. A historian by training, the hero worked in one of the museums in the capital, sometimes “doing translations” (he knew several languages). He was lonely and had few acquaintances in Moscow. Having won a lot of money on a bond received at work, he rented basement rooms in small house, bought the necessary books and began to write a novel about Pontius Pilate. The master, who then had a name, was experiencing his “golden age.” The coming spring was beautiful, the novel about Pilate was “flying to its end.”

One day, “something much more delightful” happened than a big win - the Master met a woman, very beautiful, with “an extraordinary, unprecedented loneliness in her eyes,” and from that moment his life became complete.

This woman was beautiful, wealthy, married to a young successful specialist, and, by the standards of the people around her, completely prosperous. Talking about it, the author exclaims: “Gods, my gods! What did this woman need! The heroine is lonely and unhappy - there is no love in her life. Together with the Master, meaning came to Margarita’s life.

This is how the theme of love begins to sound in the novel “The Master and Margarita” with a story about a seemingly random meeting of heroes.

The problem of love in the novel

Love did not make the heroes better or worse - it, like a true feeling, made them different.

The Master and Margarita realized that “fate itself” brought them together and that they were created for each other forever. Love “struck us instantly”, “struck us both at once! - exclaims the Master, talking with the poet Bezdomny, - this is how lightning strikes, this is how a Finnish knife strikes! - forever and irrevocably.

The master was now creating a great novel, he was inspired by his beloved. Margarita found happiness by becoming the writer’s “secret wife,” friend and like-minded person. And just as there was “not a soul” in the alley along which, when they first met, the heroes walked, so in their new life there was no place for anyone: only two and their common cause - a romance created by the Master.

The novel was completed, and “the hour came when I had to leave the secret shelter and go out into life.”

The world of literature, the reality into which the Master plunges - the world of opportunism, mediocrity and denial of talent - breaks him.

The heroes have to confront the world around them. Following the fate of the writer and his beloved, we see how the problem of love is solved in many ways in the novel “The Master and Margarita”.

Love of the Master and Margarita: dedication and selflessness

Bulgakov writes a selfless and selfless love story.

Margarita accepts the hero’s interests as her own, she does everything to make her beloved happy and calm, this is now the meaning of her existence, she inspires the writer, helps him create and makes him a Master. Their life becomes one.

Not feeling happy for a minute in the Gothic mansion, Margarita nevertheless cannot hurt her husband, leave without explaining anything, because he “did no harm” to her.

The master who created a brilliant but “untimely” novel is broken. “I’m nobody now.” He wants nothing more than to see his beloved, but he considers himself not to have the right to ruin her life.

Mercy and compassion in the love of heroes

Love in the novel “The Master and Margarita” is merciful and compassionate.

The feeling that the heroine feels for her chosen one is inextricably linked with her love for people. With dignity, fulfilling the role of queen at Satan's ball, she bestows love and attention on all the great sinners. Her own suffering prompts her to save others from the suffering: without even thinking about whether she is a “person of exceptional kindness” or a “highly moral person”, she asks Woland not for herself, but for the forgiveness of Frida, the repentant killer of her own child.

Even in a fit of revenge, love allows Margarita to remain a woman, sensitive and merciful. The “wild destruction” caused by the heroine stopped as soon as she saw a frightened baby in one of the windows. Thirsty for reprisals against the critic Latunsky, who killed the Master, Margarita is unable to condemn him to death. Turning her into a witch does not deprive her of the main thing - true femininity.

Lovers take the last step before dissolving into eternity together. Margarita demands to release the soul of Pilate, tormented by his conscience for so long, but the Master gets the opportunity to do this by ending the novel with one phrase: “Free! Free! He is waiting for you!"

Faithful and eternal love of the Master and Margarita

Left alone, without any news about her beloved, Margarita preserves her feeling and hope of meeting. She doesn’t care how or where it will take place, or who will arrange it.

It is in the work “The Master and Margarita” that the theme of eternal love and fidelity as the saving power of the human soul is revealed to us by the author. What a person is capable of to keep his love - the story makes us think about this.

Finding out about the Master is the only desire of desperate Margarita, for the sake of which you can believe in anything, turn into a witch, become the hostess of Satan’s own ball. For her, the boundaries of Light and Darkness are blurred: “otherworldly or not otherworldly – ​​it doesn’t matter,” she is sure. Yeshua read the novel, asks to give peace to the writer and his beloved, and the “prince of darkness” “arranges” peace. Margarita will remain with her beloved forever; next to him, death is not scary. “I will take care of your sleep,” she says, walking with the Master to their eternal home.

The power of love saves the Master from suffering, makes him strong (“I will never allow cowardice again,” he promises the heroine) and returns his brilliant novel to the world.

The theme of love in Bulgakov’s work is perhaps so poignant and authentic because the author had the good fortune to love himself and be loved by a woman, who was embodied in the image of Margarita.
Time passes, the story of eternal love, told on the pages of “The Master and Margarita,” does not age, convincing that true love exists.

Many contemporaries tried to give their analysis of love in the novel and the reasons for its appearance; the above arguments are intended to help 11th graders when writing an essay on the topic “Love in the novel “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov.”

Work test

In any final essay, first of all, arguments from literature are valued, which show the degree of erudition of the author. It is in the main part of his work that he demonstrates his abilities: literacy, prudence, erudition, and the ability to beautifully express his thoughts. Therefore, when preparing, it is important to focus your attention on what works will be needed to cover the topics, and what episodes will help support the thesis. This article contains 10 arguments in the area of ​​“Loyalty and Treason,” which will be useful in the process of writing practice essays, and maybe even in the exam itself.

  1. In A. N. Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm,” the heroine faces a difficult choice between loyalty to the deep-rooted traditions of the city of Kalinov, where stupidity and narrow-mindedness reign, and freedom of feeling and love. Treason is the highest manifestation of freedom for Katerina, the rebellion of her soul, in which love overcomes conventions and prejudices, ceases to be sinful, becoming the only salvation from a depressing existence in the “dark kingdom.”
  2. “Everything passes, but not everything is forgotten” - and true fidelity knows no time boundaries. In the story by I.A. Bunin's "Dark Alleys" the heroine carries love through the years, leaving in her life full of everyday life, a place for the first and most important feeling. Having met her lover who once abandoned her, who has aged and become a complete stranger, she cannot get rid of bitterness. But the woman is unable to forgive the long-standing offense, since the price for loyalty to failed love turns out to be too high.
  3. In the novel L.N. In Tolstoy's War and Peace, the paths of fidelity and betrayal are often intertwined. Staying faithful for Natasha Rostova, due to her young age and inexperience, turned out to be a difficult task. Her betrayal of Andrey is accidental and is seen more as a mistake of a girl inexperienced in love affairs, weak, subject to the influence of others, rather than as betrayal and frivolity. Caring for the wounded Bolkonsky, Natasha proves the sincerity of her feelings, showing spiritual maturity. But Helen Kuragina remains faithful only to her own interests. The primitiveness of feelings and the emptiness of the soul make it alien true love, leaving room only for numerous betrayals.
  4. Loyalty to love pushes a person to heroic deeds, but it can also be destructive. In the story by A.I. Kuprin "Garnet Bracelet" unrequited love becomes the meaning of life for the petty official Zheltkov, who remains true to his high feelings for a married woman who will never be able to reciprocate his feelings. He does not defile his beloved with demands for reciprocal feelings. Tormented and suffering, he blesses Vera for a happy future, does not allow vulgarity and everyday life to penetrate the fragile world of love. In his loyalty there is a tragic doom to death.
  5. In the novel by A.S. Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" fidelity becomes one of the central themes. Fate constantly forces heroes to make decisions on which their personal happiness depends. Evgeny turns out to be weak in his choice, gives in to circumstances, betraying his friendship and himself for the sake of his own vanity. He is unable to take responsibility not only for loved one, but also for their own actions. Tatyana, on the contrary, remains faithful to duty, sacrificing her interests. In this renunciation is the highest manifestation of strength of character, the struggle for inner purity, in which a sense of duty overcomes love.
  6. The strength and depth of human nature is known in love and loyalty. In the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" heroes, tormented by the severity of their crimes, are not able to find solace in the external world. In each other they see a reflection of their own sins, and the desire to atone for them, to find new life meanings and guidelines, becomes a common goal for them. Each of them wants to hear words of forgiveness from the other, each is looking for salvation from the pangs of conscience. Sonya Marmeladova shows courage by going to Siberia for Raskolnikov, and with her loyalty she transforms Rodion, resurrected by her love.
  7. In the novel by I.A. Goncharov’s “Oblomov” the theme of fidelity is reflected in the relationships of several characters at once. The love of Olga Ilyinskaya and Ilya Oblomov is a collision of two worlds, beautiful in their romance and spirituality, but unable to coexist in harmony. Even in love, Olga is true to her ideas about the ideal lover, whom she tries to create from the sleepy, inactive Oblomov. She makes attempts to transform the hero, who lives in a cramped little world artificially created by him. Agafya Pshenitsyna, on the contrary, is trying to protect Oblomov’s sleeping soul from shocks, supporting his comfortable existence in the realm of carefree family happiness and comfort. She is infinitely devoted to him, and in blind obedience to her husband's whims, she becomes the indirect cause of his death. Oblomov’s servant Zakhar is also loyal, for whom the master is the embodiment of true heroism. Even after the death of Ilya Ilyich, a devoted servant takes care of his grave.
  8. Loyalty is, first of all, awareness of responsibility, renunciation of one’s own interests and selfless appeal to another person. In the story by V.G. Rasputin's "French Lessons" district school teacher Lidiya Mikhailovna faces a difficult moral choice: to help a starving student using a non-pedagogical method, or to remain indifferent to the grief of a child who needs her help. The question of professional ethics here ceases to be dominant, giving way to compassion and tenderness for a capable boy. Loyalty to human duty becomes for her higher than conventional ideas about morality.
  9. Loyalty and betrayal are opposite phenomena, mutually exclusive. But, one way or another, these are two different sides of the same choice, morally complex and not always unambiguous.
    In M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita,” the heroes choose between good and evil, duty and conscience. They are faithful to their choice to the end, even one that brings them a lot of mental suffering. Margarita leaves her husband, actually committing betrayal, but, in her devotion to the Master, she is ready to take the most desperate step - to make a deal with evil spirits. Her loyalty to love justifies her sins, because Margarita remains pure before herself and the person she wants to save.
  10. In M. A. Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don” the themes of fidelity and betrayal are revealed in the relationships of several characters at once. Love ties closely connect the characters with each other, creating ambiguity in situations in which it is difficult to find happiness. Loyalty here comes in many forms: Aksinya’s passionate devotion is different from Natalya’s quiet, unrequited tenderness. In a blinding desire for Gregory, Aksinya cheats on Stepan, while Natalya remains faithful to her husband to the end, forgiving dislike and indifference. Grigory Melekhov, in search of himself, turns out to be a victim of fatal events. He is looking for the truth, in favor of which he is ready to make a choice, but the search is complicated by life’s ups and downs, which the hero cannot cope with. Grigory's mental tossing, his vain readiness to be faithful to the end only to truth and duty is another personal tragedy in the novel.
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Loyalty

Mikhail Bulgakov worked on the novel “The Master and Margarita” until the last day of his life. It was this work that brought him posthumous world fame. In it, the author introduces us to sincerely loving characters who are ready to go through many sacrifices just to be together forever. Margarita is a beautiful, young woman who is married to a worthy man who gives her both prosperity and peace of mind. But the heroine does not love her husband. From the very first minute, she fell in love with a modest and undistinguished writer named Master.

During the course of the novel

we learn that the heroine is ready to live in a closet, endure material deprivation, but only so that the Master she loves will always be there. This is what M. A. Bulgakov represents ideal love, who endowed his heroes with extraordinary characters and inclinations. The phrase has forever entered the world of Russian literature: “Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in the world? May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out!” Poetic love, earthly love, heroic love - this is the force that drives all the events in the novel “The Master and Margarita”.

However, the lovers are replaced by a bitter separation. Then the author sends the professor of black magic and the “prince of darkness”, the almighty Woland, to help them. The question arises: How could the author send dark forces to help such a bright feeling? Bulgakov had a special approach to love. He did not divide this feeling into light or dark, and did not attribute it to any category at all. Love is a feeling that could be considered on a par with life or death. She could be either vicious or divine. The author also uses the following epithets in relation to her: faithful, real, eternal, all-forgiving, redeeming.

This was exactly the kind of love the Master and Margarita had, for which Woland gave them eternal happiness and eternal peace. For this, however, a heavy price was paid. Concerned about the disappearance of her lover, Margarita agrees to everything that Woland’s accomplices offer her. She turns into a witch and the queen of a satanic ball, and drinks a bloody drink from the glass-head of the late Berlioz, and wreaks havoc in the house of the critic Latunsky, because of which the Master began to have problems. The key scene in the novel is Satan's ball, during which Margarita acts not only as the queen of the celebration, but also as a direct participant in the reception of former sinners: murderers, executioners, robbers.

During the ball, her attention is attracted by one sad guest, whose name is Frida. Her sin is too great. She is a child killer, who has been offered the same handkerchief with which she strangled her own child for thirty years. Margarita sincerely feels sorry for her and, in response to her only desire, asks Woland to free this unfortunate woman from further suffering. At the same time, Messire understands that she is sacrificing her personal happiness for the sake of a stranger, so he still returns the Master to her. The power of true love is great and can work miracles. As a reward for their loyalty and love, Bulgakov's heroes at the end of the novel received well-deserved peace.


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The problems of fidelity and betrayal are raised in his work by M. A. Bulgakov.

The most striking personification of fidelity in M. Bulgakov’s novel is Margarita. She is a young and attractive woman, married to a respected man and lives in complete prosperity. It would seem that Margarita has everything a woman can dream of. But still she is unhappy. After all, she is deprived of that strong, all-consuming and true love that took possession of her entire being.

She remains faithful to her lover, the Master, to the last. Every night she goes to bed thinking about him. Margarita is ready to give up a luxurious life and live in a poor closet, just to be with her loved one. The author, using the example of the main character, shows that true love exists in the world.

To save the Master, Margarita stepped into the unknown. She sold her soul to the devil, endured all the torment and difficulties at Satan's ball. Seeing her boundless loyalty, the prince of darkness, Woland, fulfills what she so ardently desired. But Margarita has such a noble heart that she sacrificed her only desire for the sake of Frida, the child killer, so that she would stop bringing the handkerchief with which she strangled the baby. But Margarita is given another chance. Her devotion in the novel is undeniable.

The master is faithful to the woman he loves under any circumstances. He painfully perceives her absence. He is also faithful to his ideals, to his creation. The master chose to burn his work so that it would not fall into the hands of unkind critics. He values ​​his friendship with the poet Bezdomny, who became his only interlocutor in the mental hospital.

Berlioz also does not want to change his convictions until his death, despite all Woland’s arguments and evidence.

Being faithful to the Master, Margarita betrayed her husband. She could not deceive him and herself and continue to live with an unloved person. She was forced to take this step because she could not live without love.
Betrayal of truth and own ideas illustrated by the example of Pontius Pilate, through whose fault the innocent Yeshua was executed.

This is how the writer creates a motley picture of characters and characters, inviting everyone to decide what he will choose: loyalty or betrayal. And in the example of Margarita, we see that loyalty to one turns into betrayal of another.

The image of Margarita, the Master’s lover and muse, occupies an important place in M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.” The theme in the work is connected with this heroine true love, creativity, freedom. This character also plays a major role in the development of the plot of the work.

Margarita does not immediately enter the novel. Bulgakov describes the Master's ordeal and his longing for true love. And finally a fateful meeting occurs - the hero meets his muse.

All her life before meeting the Master, Margarita was unhappy. And this despite the fact that outwardly her life was quite prosperous, many envied the heroine. Margarita had loving husband - wonderful person holding a high position and able to fully provide for his wife. The heroine did not need anything financially. But she lacked love, warmth, meaning that would make life worth living.

It seems to me that this woman felt that she was destined for a different fate - the fate of a muse and inspiration. Margarita’s meeting with the Master had some kind of mystical character. They met in a deserted alley and immediately realized that they loved each other: “She, however, later claimed that this was not so, that we, of course, loved each other a long time ago, without knowing each other, without ever seeing ..."

Margarita became a muse for the hero. It was she who, after reading the first pages of his novel, named her lover a master. Thanks to her, he wrote a magnificent novel of great artistic value.

It is important to note that for Bulgakov the theme of the muse was especially relevant. After all, the prototype of Margarita turned out to be the writer’s last wife, Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova. It was she who was with Bulgakov to the end, with him she experienced all the persecutions and always instilled faith and hope in her husband.

The theme of devotion and fidelity is associated with the image of Margarita in the novel. The heroine was always faithful to her love. It is love, therefore, it seems to me that one cannot consider her secret life with the Master as betrayal of her husband. And Margarita was faithful to the great creation of her Master to the end.

Even the hero himself did not have such willpower and endurance! When the novel was ready and reprinted, the Master published it. Many publishing houses refused to publish such a “seditious” work. It was Margarita who helped the novel “see the light.” She found one editor who dared to publish several chapters of the work in their magazine. This is where the persecution of the Master began. Each newspaper considered it its duty to ridicule the hero and his work.

Unable to withstand such aggression and rejection, the Master begins to go crazy. He renounces his creation, burns the novel in the oven and goes to a mental hospital on his own. At the clinic, the Master even renounces his beloved, believing that in such a terrible mental state he can only bring misfortune to Margarita.

All this time the heroine felt unhappy, she did not live, but existed. But Margarita remained faithful to her beloved to the end. Not only to him, but also to his brainchild, his novel. For a long time Margarita kept the little that she had left as a memory of her beloved: “... an old brown leather album in which there was a photograph of the master, a savings bank book with a deposit of ten thousand in his name, dried rose petals spread between sheets of tissue paper and part a notebook the size of a whole sheet of paper, written on a typewriter and with a burnt bottom edge.”

Freedom and love are returned to the heroine by evil spirits in the person of Woland and his retinue. Having rubbed herself with the magic Azazello cream, Margarita becomes a witch. Now she can leave the reality she hates and stop being a prisoner of the framework and prohibitions of the society around her. The chapter “Flight” begins with words symbolizing the state of the newly-minted witch: “Invisible and free! Invisible and free!

Thus, for the sake of just one opportunity to find out something about the fate of her Master, Margarita goes to Satan himself and agrees to be the queen at his ball. For the sake of love, the heroine becomes a witch, gets involved with evil spirits, casting aside all fears and concerns. It was only thanks to Margarita that the Master was rescued from the clinic.

Even Satan could not help but admire and appreciate Margarita. Woland decides to generously reward the heroine for her devotion and fidelity. It is only thanks to Margarita that Woland brings the novel back from the dust, saying the most important phrase in the entire work: “Manuscripts don’t burn.”

The Master betrayed his romance, renounced his beliefs and his beloved, so he did not deserve the Light. Only Satan could reward him, giving the Master eternal peace. And Margarita, faithful in everything and always following her lover, shared his fate with the hero from beginning to end. It was this image that became the embodiment of true devotion, love, femininity, and inspiration in Russian literature of the 20th century.