Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Heart of a Dog, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Revolution and Regression
Social Class and Hierarchy
Science, Nature, and Morality
Dignity, Loyalty, and Respect
Summary
Analysis
Sharikov disappears in the morning, so Bormenthal can’t teach him his lesson. Shvonder doesn’t know where Sharikov is, but complains that he stole money from the house committee. And Fyodor can’t find any trace of him. They learn that Sharikov left in the morning with his coat and a stolen bottle of alcohol. Darya and Zina say they hope he never comes back. Three days later, Philip sends the militia to search for him—and he immediately turns up at the apartment, wearing new work clothes and stinking of cats. He explains that, with Shvonder’s help, he got a government job purging stray cats from the city.
Like almost everything else about him, Sharikov’s disappearance and new job highlight the utter absurdity of the new Soviet government. On the one hand, he responded to his conflict with Philip and Bormenthal by getting a job, like a responsible adult. On the other hand, he’s a prime example of irresponsibility: he disappeared precisely in order to avoid consequences for his actions, he’s unhygienic, and his new job caters to his most vulgar, unsophisticated instincts. Bulgakov suggests that the Soviets reward irresponsibility and incompetence, while punishing prudence and intelligence. So it's no surprise that Sharikov fits right into the government.
Themes
Furiously, Bormenthal grabs Sharikov by the throat and orders him to ask Zina and Darya Petrovna for forgiveness. Sharikov pretends to agree, tries and fails to call out for help, then asks for forgiveness and promises never to assault them again. The women tell Bormenthal to release Sharikov, who goes on to explain that he’s moving back into his home—Philip’s apartment. Philip asks what happens to the cats Sharikov kills. Sharikov explains that they get turned into coats and sold to workers, who think they’re buying squirrel fur.
Sharikov doesn’t take responsibility for his behavior—he doesn’t show any remorse or recognize the harm he’s caused. Furthermore, Bormenthal and Philip only get Sharikov to apologize for his actions through violence (and the threat of further violence in the future). Respect and morality totally break down in their household because Sharikov refuses to honor them. Meanwhile, the cat-fur jackets exemplify how the Soviet state shortchanges and deceives the workers it claims to represent. Its principles are just like Sharikov’s: nonexistent. It will take whatever it can get away with, and its ideology is merely a pretense for its self-interest.
Themes
For two days, the apartment is quiet. Everybody, including Sharikov, works during the day and dines peacefully together at night. But after two days, a young woman (Vasnetsova) arrives at the apartment with Sharikov, who explains that she’s his typist and will be moving in with him. Bormenthal leads Sharikov away and Philip tells the young woman that Sharikov was a failed lab experiment. The woman cries. Sharikov told her that he was a war hero, and she hoped he would save her from having to eat the horrible government cafeteria food. She can’t believe Philip found Sharik in the same cafeteria’s doorway.
Vasnetsova’s arrival brings the novel full circle, since she was the first person who met the injured Sharik in the opening scene. Like Philip, she showed sympathy to Sharik—but unlike Philip, she didn’t have the power to help him. Now, as a human, Sharikov repays her kindness by taking advantage of her. In Bulgakov’s allegory, the working classes demand pity when powerless and refuse to offer it when they gain power after the Revolution.
Themes
Philip brings Vasnetsova out to the waiting room and asks Sharikov to tell her the truth about the scar on his forehead. But he says it was from the war, and the young woman leaves in tears. Sharikov says he’s going to fire her, and Bormenthal furiously asks for her name. Sharikov tells him. Bormenthal grabs Sharikov and says he will shoot Sharikov if he fires her. Sharikov comments that he can get a gun, too, and he runs out of the apartment.
Sharikov again refuses to own up to his lies and misbehavior—when confronted, he just doubles down on it by threatening Vasnetsova. His tensions with Bormenthal continue to escalate, in part because Bormenthal is also willing to use violence to stop Sharikov from hurting others. Bulgakov raises the question of whether there’s any other way to stop rogue, violent, selfish actors—among them the Bolsheviks—besides force.
Themes
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The next afternoon, Philip gets a surprise visit from one of his patients, a military officer. The officer pulls out a copy of an official report that Sharikov and Shvonder have filed against Philip for counterrevolutionary activities, like threatening Shvonder and telling Zina to burn an Engels book. When Philip asks if he can keep the document or if the officer needs it for a further investigation, the officer is offended—the report is obviously bogus, and there will be no official investigation. Philip apologizes profusely for the offense.
Sharikov and Shvonder’s report again highlights the immorality and absurd contradictions of Soviet politics. First, Sharikov and Shvonder are trying to threaten and manipulate Philip by accusing him of threatening and manipulating them. The government apparently cares about offenses against communists, but excuses communists’ offenses against others. At the same time, the report gets thrown out because of Philip’s personal relationship with a corrupt official—which again shows that the government isn’t actually treating citizens equally, even though that’s its party line. Most of all, Philip’s friend throws out the report, assuming it’s full of lies, even though everything in it is actually true. The official assumes that Sharikov and Shvonder are simply lying, but the law is fair, when the truth is far more troubling: the law is the problem, and Sharikov and Shvonder are telling the truth about behavior that probably shouldn’t be illegal.
Themes
When Sharikov returns to the apartment, Philip and Bormenthal call him into the examination room and order him to move out of the apartment immediately. But Sharikov insists that he has a right to live there. He pulls out a gun and aims it at Bormenthal, who jumps on him and starts choking him with a pillow.
With Sharikov’s final attack on Philip and Bormenthal, the men’s conflict devolves into an all-or-nothing struggle for survival. While Sharikov and his communist comrades always demanded equality, Bulgakov suggests that they always really wanted supremacy.
Themes
A few minutes later, Bormenthal posts a note on the front door saying that Philip is sick and visiting hours are cancelled. Covered in blood, Bormenthal asks Zina and Darya Petrovna to stay home, and he locks all the doors. That night, the apartment is quiet. The neighbors report that the examination room lights were on all night, and Zina reports that Bormenthal burned a book of patient records. But nobody truly knows what happened on that quiet night.
Philip and Bormenthal finally do what they must to resolve their Sharikov problem. Bulgakov doesn’t yet reveal how, but the quietness he describes in Philip’s apartment clearly implies that Sharikov is gone and Philip has won back his peace and quiet. Of course, the ending is largely tongue-in-cheek—readers can easily guess what Philip and Bormenthal are doing to Sharikov, and Bulgakov will reveal it in a couple pages. But the ending’s implications for the novel’s allegory are less clear. Was it possible for Russia to undo the Revolution in 1924? Perhaps Bulgakov is asking it to do so, or perhaps he is suggesting that the Bolsheviks were already doing so through the New Economic Policy.
Themes
