2-3 (Primus Stove)

The main source of my confusion in this section of The Master and Margarita was the variety of appearances made by a “swallow”. It was my impression that the first appearance of the swallow, in which it “disappeared behind the capital of the column [and] . . . decided to build a nest there” (27), was symbolic of a supernatural inception of the idea that Yeshua should be released without his suggested “death sentence” (28). However, the swallow made a further appearance on page 32 (for no reason that was apparent to me) and was replaced with another bird, “a sparrow” (46). What is the significance, if there is one, of these birds and the switch between the two?

This was not the only evidence of the supernatural in the reading, as the characters (but most often Pontius Pilate) experience numerous “apparition[s]”, including the surprising reappearance of “the professor” in the form of a beggar immediately preceding the death of Berlioz. Significantly, “the professor”, who is revealed implicitly to be the devil, predicted Berlioz’s death, a result of his head being severed.
-Primus Stove