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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 1. Never Talk with Strangers
Explanation and Analysis—Kant's Proof:
Bulgakov begins The Master and Margarita from a metaphysical perch: Berlioz and Ivan Nikolayevich sit on the bench at Patriach’s Ponds in a heated debate about God’s (non)existence in the novel’s first pages. As the professor of dark magic settles between them, the discussion turns to Kant’s proof of God:
‘But permit me to ask you,’ the foreign guest resumed after a troubled silence, ‘what about the proofs of God's existence? As we know, there are exactly five of them […] Bravo! These are exactly the words of the restless old Immanuel on this subject. But curiously enough, he demolished all five arguments and then, as if to mock himself, constructed his own sixth one. ‘Kant's argument,’ the educated editor countered with a subtle smile, ‘is equally unconvincing.’
Related Themes:
Chapter 2. Pontius Pilate
Explanation and Analysis—The Gospel:
Taking up Woland’s first lines, the story in Chapter 2 opens to a potentially unfamiliar scene with strikingly familiar figures, in an allusion to the biblical Gospels:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, wearing a white cloak with a blood-red lining and walking with the shuffling gait of a cavalryman, the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, came out into the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great.
Related Themes:
Chapter 13. The Hero Enters
Explanation and Analysis—Faust:
The Master and Margarita is not the only literary work to feature the Devil. When the Master enters in Ivan’s cell in Chapter 13, he concludes that the poet crossed paths with Satan and slips in a brief mention of Goethe’s Faust:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Well, then…for even the face you described, the different eyes, the eyebrows!…You'll pardon me, but perhaps you have never even heard the opera Faust?
Related Themes:
Chapter 28. The Last Adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth
Explanation and Analysis—Don Quixote:
In a novel where the Devil abducts theater members and streetcars run over editors, even Spanish knights earn a brief mention. Having fled the burning apartment 50, Koroviev and Behemoth pass Griboyedov’s in Chapter 28 and speculate about the literary works being written:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘Perfectly true,’ Koroviev agreed with his inseparable companion. ‘And a sweet chill numbs your heart to think that a future author of a Don Quixote or a Faust, or, the devil take me, a Dead Souls may be ripening here, right before your eyes! Eh?’
