SOURCE: Mills, Judith M. “Of Dreams, Devils, Irrationality, and The Master and Margarita.” In Russian Literature and Psychoanalysis, edited by Daniel Rancour-Laferriere, pp. 303-27. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1989.

In this essay, Mills explores traditional Russian literary elements as well as modern psychoanalytic dream theory in The Master and Margarita.

A literary work establishes its place within a tradition and assumes its unique character when traditional devices or motifs are put to new or idiosyncratic use. The Master and Margarita¹ is both traditional and highly unique. It draws copiously from the Russian literary tradition: the title story reiterates the strong woman/weak or superfluous hero theme that was so fully developed in the nineteenth century; the first person narrator intrudes repeatedly, recalling the novel's beginnings and Pushkin's style; in unmistakably Gogolian fashion bureaucrats' foibles are unmasked; and, the double rears its heads once again.

Bulgakov uses the dreams...