Summary of "Devils" will be interesting to all fans of Mikhail Bulgakov. This is a story written by him in 1923. In this article we will give a brief summary of the work, talk about its author, the history of creation and the main idea.
Story creation
The summary of "Devils" helps to understand what topics interested the Russian writer in the early 1920s.
The story was first published the year after it was written in the capital's almanac "Nedra". It is interesting that initially the author offered this work to the editor of the Rossiya magazine Isaiah Lezhnev, but he refused to publish it.
The writer himself in the diary left a note on her release. He mentions that the story is accepted, but they pay only 50 rubles per sheet for it. From this, he concludes that the book turned out to be stupid and worthless for nothing.
Synopsis
Presenting a very brief summary of the Devil, it must be said that in the work the author considers the problem of a "little man" who becomes a victim of a bureaucratic machine.
The main character is a clerk named Korotkov. In his unbridled imagination, this bureaucratic machine begins to be associated with devilish power. At the same time, he never thinks about it directly.
This is a laid-off employee who failed to cope with the bureaucrats by losing a clash with them. As a result, he goes insane and in despair commits suicide, dropping from the roof of a multi-storey building.
Author
The author of the story "Devils" is the famous Russian writer Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov. He was born in Kiev in 1891. He studied at the University of Kiev at the Faculty of Medicine.
At the beginning of World War I, he worked in the frontline zone, then was sent to a small hospital in the Smolensk province.
At the end of 1921 he moved to Moscow. Leaving the profession of a doctor, he began to write feuilletons in newspapers. He became a member of the All-Russian Union of Writers.
Bulgakov was a popular writer and playwright, although some of his works were not published. The most famous in his creative career were the novels "The White Guard", "The Master and Margarita", the novel "Dog Heart", "Fatal Eggs".
In March 1940, he died at the age of 48. He had a kidney disease, and the writer ate too much morphine, which he had been prescribed for years to relieve pain symptoms.
Tie
A summary of Bulgakov’s Devil’s allows you to find out the main events of this work. At the center of the story is the clerk of Glavcentrbazspimat (abbreviated Spimat) Bartholomew Korotkov. Around everyone is changing one job after another, and he has been firmly in his position for 11 months.
At the beginning of the story, it is indicated on the exact date when the events of the "Devil" of Bulgakov take place. This is September 20, 1921. On this day, the cashier of Spimat declares that there is nothing to pay. Instead of money, Korotkov is given the products of the enterprise - matches. At home, he decides to try to sell them. But it immediately turns out that it will not be easy to do this, since the goods are of poor quality: matches do not burn.
Dismissal
A summary of Bulgakov’s “Devils” will allow you to quickly recall the main events of the work, if you should prepare for the exam or standings. The next morning, Korotkov returns to the service, where he encounters a man who struck him with his appearance. He is not tall, but very broad at the shoulders. The head is like an egg, and the left leg is lame. A tiny face is carefully shaved, small green eyes sit in deep cavities. He was dressed in a gray jacket, sewn from a blanket, a shirt with Little Russian embroidery peered out from under him.
Seeing Korotkov, an unknown person asked what he needed. After that he tore the paper from the hands of the protagonist of the Devil’s Mikhail Bulgakov and shouted at him. It turns out that the bald one is their new boss, instead of Chekushin fired on the eve. Korotkov learns about this from the personal secretary of the head of Lidochka.
Returning to his office, Bartholomew studies the prescription of the new leader, in which he orders all the women to issue soldiers' pants. Having compiled a telephone message, the clerk sends it to the manager for approval. After that, he sits in the room for four hours, so that when bosses appear he has the appearance of a man with his head immersed in work. However, no one comes. After lunch, the bald man leaves, and the whole office runs up almost immediately. The hero of the "Devil" M. Bulgakova Korotkov alone leaves the service last.
The next morning he is late for work, and when he runs into the office, he sees that all the employees are not sitting in their places at the tables from the former Alpine Rose restaurant, but are standing in a heap against the wall, studying a certain document. This is order number one on the immediate dismissal of Korotkov for negligence and a broken face (he received an injury the day before when he tried to light the matches given to him). Under the order, the signature of the manager, whose surname is now known to everyone. This is Kalsoner, however, the name is written with a small letter.
The hero of the book "Devil" is furious with this injustice and illiteracy of the chief. He threatens to explain himself, after which he immediately rushes to the head of the door. However, at the same time, Kalsoner himself runs out of the office with a briefcase under his arm. Hurriedly says that he is busy, advises to contact the clerk. Korotkov screams after him that he is the clerk, but the manager has already left. Bartholomew finds out that the chief went to Tsentrsnab, he jumps into the tram and rushes after him. Hope burns his heart, says Bulgakov in The Devil. Thus begins the journey of Bartholomew through the Soviet institutions.
In search of the truth
A brief summary of the chapters of the Devil’s allows you to make a complete impression of this story, to understand what the author wanted to say. Korotkov arrives at Centrsnab, where he immediately notices Kalsoner's back. He tries to catch up with him, but soon loses his silhouette in the midst of people. Having flown up to the site of the fifth floor, it sees doors with the mysterious inscriptions "Nachkantsupdeldelsnab" and "Dortuar pepinierok". The use of abbreviations and little-understood words is a characteristic sign of the time, which is noticeable even when reading the summary of the Devil. Bulgakov accurately observes the desire of Soviet officials from an early age to reduce and simplify everything as much as possible, often making the situation absurd.
In the room where Korotkov ended up, there are many blond women who run between glass cages to the loud crack of typewriters. Kalsoner is not there. Having stopped the first woman, he finds out that he is about to leave, if he wants to catch him, he must rush to catch up.
The position of the protagonist Bulgakov’s Devil’s is becoming more and more confused. The summary gives a fairly accurate idea of the ridiculous situation in which he finds himself. Bartholomew rushes in the direction indicated to him. On a dark platform, he sees the closing elevator doors, on which Kalsoner leaves. Korotkov calls out to him, the man turns around and says that it is too late, but it is better to come on Friday. The elevator doors close, it rushes down. At the same time, Korotkov draws attention to a strange feature: this Kalsoner has a beard that falls to his chest.
Rushing down the stairs, he again sees the manager, who is already clean shaven. It passes very close to the hero of the Bulgakov "Devil", separated only by a glass wall. Korotkov rushes to the nearest door, but cannot open it. He sees an inscription that you can only go through the sixth entrance, bypassing the building around. Before him is an old man who reports that Kalsoner has already been fired, and Chekushin was returned to his place. Korotkov rejoices: he is now saved. But then it turns out that in pursuit of the head, he lost his wallet.
Document Recovery
The summary of the Devil’s will help to find out the main events of the story even to those who have not read it. The main character urgently needs to recover lost documents. But today it’s too late - four hours, everyone goes home. Returning home, he discovers a note in the doorway: a neighbor leaves him all his wine salaries.
Late in the evening, Korotkov presses matchboxes with frenzy. At this time, chthonic horror began to overcome him. He cries until finally falling asleep. The reader observes how the protagonist of the Devil’s goes crazy. A brief summary allows us to present this quite clearly.
In the morning he goes to the house, but it turns out that he died, so the certificates are not issued. Arriving in Spimat, he discovers that in the hall of the former Alpine Rose restaurant there are no more familiar faces. Walking into his office, he sees at the table Kalsoner with a beard, who claims to be the local clerk. When Bartholomew is struck out into the corridor, a smooth-shaven Kalsoner appears, instructing him to be an assistant and write about everything that happened here before, especially about the bastard Korotkov.
Kalsoner drags the main character into his office, writes something on paper, puts a stamp, shouts in the phone that he will come soon and runs away again. On paper, Korotkov sees that the bearer of this document is the assistant manager of Spimat Kolobkov.
Returns Kalsoner with a beard. Korotkov rushes at him, biting his teeth, he has to run away. Recollecting himself, the main character goes after. From the cries of Kalsoner, the office is confused, the perpetrator of the incident is hiding behind a restaurant authority. Korotkov rushes to him, but clings to the handle. A grunt is heard and the hall is filled with a lion's roar. Through the roar and howl, the signal of a car is heard. Terrible and shaved Kalsoner returns. When he climbs the stairs, his hair begins to move on Korotkov’s head. He runs out through the side doors. At this moment he sees the bearded Kalsoner, who sits in the span.
Claims Bureau
The main character threatens to clarify everything. He takes the tram and sets off for the green building. In the window, Korotkov finds out where the claims office is located, but almost immediately gets lost in the rooms and tangled corridors.
Relying on his own memory, he rises to the eighth floor. Opening the door, he enters a large hall with columns, completely empty. At this moment, the fat figure of a man dressed in all white comes down from the stage. He asks Korotkov if he is ready to please them with a new essay or feuilleton. The confused protagonist begins to tell a story from his own life, which happened to him. Suddenly, the man also begins to complain about the same Kalsoner. According to him, in two days of his stay, he managed to transfer all the furniture from here to the claims office.
Korotkov screaming rushes to the claims office. He runs for at least five minutes, overcoming the bends of the corridors, until he finds himself at the very place from which he set off. He rushes to the other side, but after 5 minutes he returns to the same place again. Running into the hall with columns, he again sees a man in white. His left arm is broken off, there is no nose and ear. Cold, Korotkov returns to the corridor.
Suddenly, a secret door opens in front of him, from which comes a shriveled and old woman with empty buckets that she carries on the beam. Entering it, the main character falls into a dark space from which there is no way out. In a frenzy, he scratches the walls until he bumps into an unknown white spot, which releases him back onto the stairs.
Korotkov runs down, from where he hears walking steps. For a moment, a long beard and a gray blanket sweeps in front of him. Their eyes meet, after which a subtle screech is heard from pain and fear. Korotkov retreats up, and Kalsoner - down. Changing his voice to bass, he calls for help. Then he falls, stumbling, turns into a black cat with sparkling china eyes. In this form, flies out into the street and gets lost in the crowd. An unexpected clarification sets in the hero’s brain. He understands that the thing is cats. After that, he begins to laugh, louder and louder each time, until the whole staircase is filled with loud peals of his laughter.
In the evening, returning to his apartment, Korotkov drinks three bottles of church wine. Trying to calm down and forget everything. His head aches a lot, he vomits twice. Towards the end, Bartholomew still firmly decides to restore the documents, but never again to see Kalsoner and not appear in Spimat. In the distance, he hears the clock beating loudly, counting 40 beats, he cries, and then he gets sick again.
Denouement
In the morning, Korotkov again comes to the eighth floor, where he nevertheless finds a claims bureau. In it, seven women are sitting at typewriters. As soon as he wanted to say something, the brunette sitting on the edge pulls him out into the corridor, declaring that she is ready to immediately surrender to him. Korotkov refuses, claiming that his documents were stolen. The brunette kisses him anyway. At this moment, an old lustered man appears.
He is called Korotkov Kolobkov, stating that no matter how hard he tries, he will not kiss a business trip. Moreover, he threatens to file a statement accusing him of molestation. In the end, she begins to cry, suspecting Bartholomew of the fact that he is trying to get the lift from the old man.
The main character is seized by hysteria, but here they call the next supplicant. He faces a blond man who asks him: "Irkutsk or Poltava?" Then he pulls out a drawer from where the secretary comes out. A brunette appears who screams that she has already sent documents to Poltava and is also going there, as her aunt lives there. Korotkov declares that he does not want to go to any Poltava, and the blond again forces him to choose between two cities.
In Korotkov’s imagination, the blond begins to increase in size. The wall breaks up, and the typewriters on the tables start playing foxtrot. All women go dancing. An unknown person appears in the car in white trousers with purple stripes. Korotkov starts whining and banging his head against the corner of the table. The old man at this moment begins to whisper to him that there is only one salvation left - to go to Dyrkin in the fifth compartment. It starts to smell like ether; unknown hands carry the main character into the corridor. It smells of damp, falling into the abyss.
The cabin with the two Korotkov shorts down. The first goes outside, and the second remains in her mirror. A fat man appears in a top hat who promises to arrest Bartholomew. In response, he laughs terribly, stating that nothing will work out, since he himself does not know who he is. And then he demands to answer whether Calsoner has come across to him. The fat man is already terrified. He also sends Korotkov to Dyrkin, warning that he is now menacing. On the elevator they go upstairs.
Dyrkin is sitting in a cozy office. As soon as Korotkov enters, he jumps up from the table, demanding to shut up, although Bartholomew has not yet managed to say anything. At the same moment, a young man with a briefcase appears, and a smile appears on Dyrkin's face. The young man begins to carry him out, hits the ear with a briefcase, and Korotkov threatens with a red fist.
The humble Dyrkin laments that the reward for his zeal turned out to be so ungrateful. Moreover, he suggests taking a candelabrum if your hand hurts. Korotkov, who does not understand anything, hits him on the head with a candelabrum. Dyrkin runs away, shouting "guard." A cuckoo appears from the clock. She turns into a bald head, which promises to fix how Bartholomew beats employees.
Korotkov is again seized with rage, he throws the candelabra into the clock, then Kalsoner appears from them. He hides behind the door, turning into a white rooster. Then, in the corridor, Dyrkin cries out: “Catch him!” Korotkov rushes to run away.
He runs along an impressive staircase with a white rooster, a fat man’s top hat, a boy with a gun in his hands, a candelabrum and some other people. Korotkov rushes out onto the street first, ahead of the candelabrum and cylinder. On the way, passers-by shy away from him, someone hoots and whistles, cries are heard: “Hold on!” Shots are heard, and the main character rushes to an 11-story building on the corner. Having run into the mirrored lobby, he takes the elevator on the sofa opposite another Korotkov. As the elevator goes upstairs, shots are heard below.
Korotkov jumps upstairs, listening to what is happening behind him. A rumble grows from below, from the side you hear the knock of balls from the billiard room. Korotkov rushes in there with a war cry, locks himself and arms himself with balls. As soon as the first head appears near the elevator, shelling begins. In response, the sound of a machine gun crackles, the windows burst.
Korotkov understands that he will not be able to maintain this position. He runs out onto the roof while behind him is advised to give up. Grabbing billiard balls rolling around, he stops near the parapet, looking down. His heart is beating at this moment. He sees people who have reduced to the size of ants, gray figures dancing near the entrance, and behind them is a heavy toy dotted with golden heads. These are firefighters. Bartholomew realizes that he is surrounded.
Leaning over, he throws down three balls one after another. People-bugs below scatter to the sides. When he leans in to pick up new shells, people emerge from the billiard room. Above them stands a lustered old man, the formidable Calsoner on casters, in his hands a musketon.
The courage of death falls upon Korotkov. He climbs onto the parapet, thinking death is better than shame. At this moment, the pursuers from him are literally just around the corner. The protagonist sees his arms outstretched towards him and the way flame is bursting out of Kalsoner's mouth. But the sunny abyss is already persistently beckoning the former clerk Bartholomew. With a piercing victorious cry, he jumps up, takes off, and then rushes into the abyss, approaching the narrow slit of the alley. The last phrases of the story are devoted to how the bloody sun bursts in his head.
main idea
The story "The Devil" is a work of the author in which he represents bureaucracy and philistinism as the main oppressors of human life. Its main character is a petty official, lost in the Soviet state machine, which becomes a symbol of the work.
When analyzing Bulgakov's Devil’s, it should be noted that this story can remind many of Gogol’s “Overcoat”. Like Akaki Akakievich, Korotkov seeks justice, tries to beat it out for himself. He wants to regain the place of the clerk, whom he lost due to the mysterious new manager. He loses peace and the meaning of life, plunging more and more into his own worldview. Over time, it becomes completely absurd.
The meaning of the Devil’s is a combination of the real and the impossible, which creates the feeling of two worlds in the work. At the end of the work, it turns out that the whole thing is a split personality of the protagonist.
In the analysis of the Devil’s, it should be noted that Bulgakov in this story managed to draw a gloomy picture of the then situation in the big city. The work is full of grotesque tricks, because of which it is very difficult to read.
The plot of the work is interestingly built, from which it becomes completely incomprehensible how the hero finds himself in this or that place, what he does, what generally happens to him. When analyzing the work of "The Devil", we conclude that this indicates the complete confusion and uncertainty that always takes place in the transitional era.
It is symbolic that the main character gets paid by matches, and his neighbor - with church wine. All this convinces us even more of the idea that it is precisely the state that grinds ordinary ordinary citizens that makes selfish and cruel people. This conclusion can be reached after analyzing Bulgakov’s “Devil’s”.