Commentary. cidents, which involve either iiuensitivity on the part of Pilate to local religious custom, or deliberate provocation to revolt

cidents, which involve either iiuensitivity on the part of Pilate to local religious custom, or deliberate provocation to revolt, which then the procurator might brutally repress. In one case thejews protested the image of the emperor carried on the insignia of the soldiers entering Jerusalem, since it was against their religious belief. In the end, the insignia were removed. In the other case, concerning Solomon's Pool, Pilate had an aqueduct built extending from the pool to the city, a distance of 37 kilometers. Pilate confiscated temple property to pay for the aqueduct, in direct conflict with the priests who protested, and an uprising was the result. This revolt was put down by Pilate's soldiers with great cruelty.

ten o'clock in the morning—a mysterious phrase, given that we know it is almost noon from other remarks. Bulgakov made relatively few changes in the Pilate chapters from version to version, so it is unlikely that an important final phrase would be an error. In all versions of this chapter the sentence was to he pronounced at noon, with the sun blazing over Pilate's head. What did begin at ten o'clock, of course, is the interrogation of Yeshua. It may be that we are meant to be taken back to the beginning of everything, in which the sense of this phrase could be " it happened" at ten o'clock in the morning.

CHAPTER 3

The Metropole—the beautiful tiim-of-the-ceniury hotel in Moscow's center, used at this time for high-ranking foreigners.

And the devil doesn't exist either? —the Manichean theme l> egun in the epigraph is here restated. If there is no God, there is no Devil; but the atheist Berlioz, as the reader by now knows, has just spent time with the devil.

He just caught a glimpse of the gilded moon high above—solar and lunar themes multiply in this novel. Some characters are tortured by the sun, some by the moon. This is one of several motifs which recur almost musically in different contexts— roses, severed heads, knives, the colors black, red, and yellow, etc.

CHAPTER 4

The threesome—Woland, the choirmaster, and the cat are an unholy trinity, and Ivan is about to have a baptism in the Moscow River (at the very location where the Church of Christ the Redeemer had earlier stood), followed by his version of the Stations of the Cross. There are many details here which are allusions to events of the New Testament—events which are not described in the Pilate chapters, but which are given in parodie form in the Moscow chapters, a pattern which will continue throughout.

building No. 13—an inside joke. Bulgakov and his first wife had lived in a wretched communal apartment in a building No. 13. Various characters, including the Annushka who spilled the sunflower oil come from this part of Bulgakov's life. An attempt to solve the housing crisis, a communal apartment was an infernal living arrangement, not unlike a boarding house. Six or seven families, sometimes more, would share the common areas of kitchen and bathroom, often resulting in personality clashes as people of wildly different backgrounds and habits were forced to live together.

the omnipresent orchestra—at this time all Moscow apartments had radio receivers which received the same station. Music, and especially opera, which Bulgakov-loved, will play a role throughout the novel, often as a counterpoint to comically banal action. Opera is connected to the characterization through voice type as well: