18-21 (Powdered Whiskers)

Whoa.

Here goes nothing:

As we move into the second section of this book, the narrator is taking a much more prominent role; an almost godly role? (different to the role of Jesus, whom I believe to be "the master"). Anyway, the narrator really starts to talk like god with things like, "follow me reader, and only me".

Now Margarita...for a start there's a real resurrection theme going on with the master on page 237. "When she awakened, Margarita did not cry, as she so often did, because she woke with a premonition that something was at last to happen that day." and she whispers to herself "I believe!...I believe! Something will happen! It cannot fail". And in her dream that night she sees the Master, "he was shabby, it was difficult to see what he was wearing. His hair was ruffled, he was unshaven. He was beckoning to her, calling her with his hand." This, to me, is the spiritual resurrection of Jesus. This doesn't happen in any of the normal gospels EXCEPT the gospel of Peter, a gospel that was left out of the New Testament, because the story differed from the others a little too much. I recall that in Peter, it is Mary Magdolin (who I believe is the Margarita) who witnesses the resurrection of Jesus, and it is a SPIRITUAL resurrection in Peter, as it is in the M&M.

So when does the Margarita's transformation begin? Well, pretty much when she decides that she would sell her soul to the devil to find out whether the master is dead or alive. Its at this point that Azazello appears on the bench next to her, as If called by the Margarita's wish. But before we delve into all that: isn't it sad that this seeming heroine sells her soul to the devil?! How very depressing...it seems that there is no other way for her, but is that a sin? Is that something that she must be punished for by having to sell her soul to the devil? Who knows...not I...

Did anybody else kinda sorta warm to Azazello? He seems like a nice/perhaps a tad awkward guy? Although that's probably a lot of his smooth charming tactic...the good vs. bad devil again...but he even goes so far as to tell her that the Master is alive. Amusingly, right after that, the Margarita exclaims "God!", which puts her firmly in team "good" (of course Azazello is not best pleased with this outburst about God).

From when she puts the cream on onwards, it's just...crazy. She cackles and turns into a witch, leaving her husband a note and flying off into the night, closely followed by her servant, who dons the cream after she has left and created havoc around the city. Let's talk about the havoc briefly: there she goes, destroying the Master's enemies' apartment, then his neighbors, and signs...and generally anything. Then she reaches this little boy and takes pity on him, and realises she has become evil. But doesn't seem particularly worried about that, and after telling the boy a "bedtime story" she flies off into the night.

Did I mention she's naked? Yeah...another one...

Then we see the servant flying along with her on a pig (the margarita's husband tries the cream and is turned into a pig). Soooooo the pig? Why the pig? A witch turning men into pigs...haven't seen that one since the Odyssey.

Finally she reaches her destination, a sort of evil paradise, with goat-people and naked women, and is then dropped into a car driven by a rook and removed from evil paradise and driven back to Moscow...where she's just come from. Complicated.
-Powdered Whiskers