Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita” (post 2, chapters VI-XI): Unintentionally, many characters are portrayed as being alternate personalities of each other.

In Chapter VI, Ivan, the poet, is psychiatrically hospitalized, and is misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia.

In Chapter XI, as mentioned in the previous post, Ivan, still in the hospital, is portrayed as actually having multiple personality.

In Chapter VII, Styopa Likhodeyev, director of the Variety Theater in Moscow, is besieged by Mr. Woland (consultant on black magic; usually interpreted as being The Devil; and his several strange associates), who wants to present his show at Styopa’s theater.

Of note here, Styopa has three signs of multiple personality: 1. memory gaps, 2. seeing other characters when he looks in the mirror, and 3. he is referred to in the plural, as “them” and “they” (pp. 68-69). (Search “memory gaps” and “mirrors” to read prior posts on these symptoms of multiple personality.)

Then, in Chapter VIII, “At precisely the time when Styopa lost consciousness in Yalta…Ivan…regained it” in the Moscow hospital (where he had been misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia in Chapter VI). It does not seem intentional that Styopa and Ivan would be alternate personalities, since it does not make sense in terms of the plot, but why does one of them lose consciousness at the same instant that the other one regains consciousness if they are not alternate personalities?

Returning to Chapter XI (broached in the previous post), in which one of Ivan’s four alternate personalties was represented by “a bass voice” that he heard, the whole sentence is: “ ‘Like a fool!’ a bass voice pronounced distinctly, a voice which did not come from either one of the Ivans and was amazingly reminiscent of the consultant’s bass” (p. 97). I now know that “consultant” refers to that other major character, Woland (see above). It is as if Woland were one of Ivan’s alternate personalities, an implication that does not seem intentional, as far as I can see, so far.

Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita. Translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor. Annotations and Afterword by Ellendea Proffer. New York, Vintage International / Random House, 1996.