4-6 (Black Poodle)

In chapters 4 through 6, Bulgakov distorts the readers sense of reality even further by having the doctor diagnose Homeless with schizophrenia at the end of chapter six. Although the reader can confirm the truth in Homeless' words, Homeless does say he and Berlioz were the only two people to meet the devil and witness the events he tries to enumerate. The lack of witnesses casts doubt on the narration. Who should the reader believe: the doctor or the narrator? Also, Homeless indeed does seem mad. Perhaps it is from shock of the death of an acquaintance, but doesn't it seem ridiculous that Homeless is running around trying to catch the devil, thinking "Oh, he must be here!" and then "Oh, he must be there!" Most strange is the fact that he first runs into an apartment, apparently certain that the devil is in there, and then, entrusting his clothes with a hobo, he jumps into an oil-saturated river to search for the devil. (At first I thought the apartment numbers 13 and 47 might have some symbolism, but I didn't find anything that seemed related when I searched them up.) How does that make sense? To add to evidence of Homeless' madness, his speech is completely incoherent. However, is Homeless' madness indeed a mistake, he will have been the third man to suffer a mistaken accusation of madness. Before him, Yeshua is mistaken for madness by Pilate and the devil is mistaken for madness by Berlioz. Ironically, they are accused of being mad when each of them was telling an unbelievable truth. So is the truth mad? It seems as the novel descends into chaos, the devil is winning at his game.

Bulgakov makes several references in these chapters. First, biblical references: the Devilish trio (tom cat, checkered stranger, and devil) seem to act as an antithesis to the Holy Trinity. And do the twelve writers convening at midnight in Griboyedov relate in anyway to Jesus's twelve disciples? Bulgakov also gives a shout out to Tolstoy when the writers hear of Berlioz's death. They all think, " 'Yes, he is dead, dead...But we--we are alive!' " (67). And again, when Archibald (another writer) learns of Homeless' "illness," "he was in essence totally indifferent to the sick man's fate and did not feel a shred of pity" (81). My last observation is the irony of Homeless using so many expressions with "the devil" in the phrase at the very end.