Summary and Analysis: Chapters 16-17
New Characters
Vassily Stepanovich: The Variety Theatre’s bookkeeper.
Prokhor Petrovich: Chairman of the commission on light entertainments.
Anna Richardovna: The secretary to Prokhor Petrovich.
Summary
Ivan’s dream begins with the Roman soldiers taking the three condemned men up
to Bald Mountain to be executed. They are followed by about 2,000 citizens, who
spread out around the hill. As the evening heat beats down, one person is
noticed hiding on the north side of Bald Mountain under a fig tree, where he
cannot see the execution. He had been tardy in following the procession of
soldiers and, after failing to make it to the execution site itself, went off
to the north side of Bald Mountain because he would be alone there, apart from
the soldiers and the crowd. The man, whose name is Matthew Levi, had thought of
taking a knife and killing his companion, Yeshua, and then himself, as the
three condemned men were marched to the execution. For that purpose he ran back
to Yershalaim and stole a bread knife, but upon running back, realized the
procession was too far ahead of him for the plan to be realized.
After Matthew Levi curses God for failing to kill Yeshua quickly, a massive storm cloud swallows the setting sun and rolls westward. The scene shifts to the three condemned men hanging on their posts. Yeshua is faring better than the other two, and he is given a soaked sponge to drink water from. The executioner stabs Yeshua and Dysmas to death, and Gestas, the third man, dies after being given the sponge. Just after the three men are proclaimed dead, lightning and thunder emerge from the cloud, as well as a deluge of rain. The soldiers leave, and Matthew Levi goes up to the posts to cut down the three bodies, then carries the body of Yeshua down from the hilltop. Ivan’s dream has ended.
The scene shifts to the Variety Theatre, where a long line of citizens has gathered seeking tickets to Woland’s magic show, and the theatre’s phones are incessantly ringing. Rimsky’s wife comes into the theatre at 10 A.M. looking for Rimsky or information about his whereabouts, and the police arrive at 10:30. Rimsky’s wife is sent home, and the investigators arrive with a dog, who is taken away after failing to follow a scented trail. The investigators ask the bookkeeper, Vassily Stepanovich, why the posters for the show have vanished along with the contract, but he knows nothing about either issue. They visit apartment 50, but Woland is not there. With the Variety’s directors gone and no sign of Woland, the magic show is cancelled, and Vassily is told to give a report on yesterday’s show and turn in the receipts from it. But when a departing Vassily pulls out a ten-ruble bill to pay his cab driver, he realizes the bill is fake, and the driver says two other fares have paid him with fake ten-ruble bills received from last night’s magic show. Vassily pays him with other bills and goes to deliver his report to the commission on light entertainment. There, he encounters tumult: the chairman’s secretary, Anna Richardovna, pulls Vassily into the chairman’s office, where he finds an nothing but an empty man’s suit. The secretary blames the chairman’s transformation on the devil and tells Vassily the black cat had gone into the chairman’s office and replaced the chairman, Prokhor Petrovich, with the empty suit. Vassily walks over to the commission’s affiliate, where he finds the employees involuntarily singing a song. Vassily learns that Koroviev has come into their offices teaching them...
(This entire section contains 896 words.)
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the “Glorious Sea” song, hypnotizing them with it. A perplexed Vassily goes on to the financial sector to deposit the box-office money, but when he opens his briefcase he finds stacks of various foreign currency instead of the rubles. Vassily is arrested.
Analysis
Matthew Levi’s presence at some distance from the execution site somewhat
invalidates his anger at God for failing to give Yeshua a quick death; Matthew
Levi has already failed to end Yeshua’s suffering, so it hardly seems just for
him to criticize God for not bringing about Yeshua’s death. However, by framing
the execution through Matthew Levi, this chapter emphasizes the simple humanity
of those being executed rather than the Roman power that has authorized their
deaths. So the three bodies are given to Matthew Levi to release from their
posts, and it is he who takes possession of Yeshua’s body.
The continuing realism of the Yershalaim narrative is in sharp contrast to the strange, unexpected events in Moscow. The Variety Theatre, still coping with the uproar caused by the magic show, is at a loss as to what to do. The only option is to cancel the night’s scheduled show and try to recover, but the show’s dispersal of fake money snares Vassily Stepanovich. The government in Moscow continues being overwhelmed by Woland and his retinue continues, as evidenced in the staff’s involuntary, hypnotic singing. The more dramatic disappearance of Prokhor Petrovich’s body is a rather astounding example of how space and time continue to be played with by the devilish threesome. The city has been turned upside down by these characters, who have only been in town for two days.