Good vs. Evil

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The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov Throughout The Master and Margarita there was a re-occurring theme of Good versus Evil. With a further in depth approach to looking at the text it was clear that Bulgakov created a co-dependence when it came to these two entities. There is no longer this idea of Good and Evil battling one another, but the two working together to create a sense of oneness. “What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?” (Bulgakov 305) Without Evil, there can be no Good and vice versa. Since these two cannot exist without the presence of the other, it can further be said there is Good in Evil and Evil in Good; there is no person or being that can completely exemplify Good or Evil. Although there is no person that completely embodies Good or Evil, there were two characters within Bulgakov’s novel that I feel depicted one entity more than the other at the core of their existence. Margarita and Woland are those two; Margarita being our Good and Woland being our Evil. Although the two are polar opposites, their lives become parallel and they become of use to one another. Margarita is a complex character, but represents what is Good in world. “Genuine goodness consists in daring and doing; and in doing the right thing.” (Carus 590) The only thing Margarita is guilty of is her devotion to a lover, The Master, whom she ultimately leaves her husband for, because that is the right thing. Why that may not seem like the right thing to do, she was able to justify her actions. “We must abandon the old standpoint of negativism that goodness consists in not doing certain things which are forbidden.” (Carus 590) She acknowledges the fact that her husband was a good man, who treated her right – but for her to stay with him would be strictly based on what was “morally
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