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Matthew Levi
Ivan is a young, misguided poet. The novel both starts and ends with him. In the novel’s opening, Ivan discusses a recent poem of his with Berlioz, who is telling him that the poem is no good as it makes Jesus seem to real. The pair then encounter Woland, who mystifies Ivan by insisting that Jesus is real, making Ivan confused and frustrated (particularly as his intellect is no match for either Berlioz’s or Woland’s). When Berlioz is killed by a tram—true to Woland’s prediction—Ivan gives chase to Woland, Koroviev, and Behemoth. When he arrives in sodden clothing at Griboedov’s and tries to explain what happened, he is thought to be insane and is committed to Dr. Stravinsky’s psychiatric clinic. Here he meets the master, who tells him more about Pontius Pilate (continuing where Woland left off) and confirms that Ivan is not mad at all. Ivan, however, becomes increasingly used to his placid surroundings and decides not to try and escape. Ivan renounces his poetry at the master’s request and, though he recovers from his mental distress—a recovery partly based on the fallacy that Woland’s antics were the work of a gang of hypnotists—he always feels anxious when the spring full moon comes around. Each time it does, his night ends with the same dream: Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri walking towards the moon engaged in conversation. The dream always concludes with a visit from the master and Margarita, who comfort him.
Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev Quotes in The Master and Margarita
The The Master and Margarita quotes below are all either spoken by Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev or refer to Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The foreigner sat back on the bench and asked, even with a slight shriek of curiosity:
‘You are - atheists?!’
‘Yes, we’re atheists,’ Berlioz smilingly replied, and Homeless thought, getting angry: ‘Latched on to us, the foreign goose!’
‘Oh, how lovely!’ the astonishing foreigner cried out and began swivelling his head, looking from one writer to the other.
‘In our country atheism does not surprise anyone,’ Berlioz said with diplomatic politeness. ‘The majority of our population consciously and long ago ceased believing in the fairy tales about God.’
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Chapter 5
Quotes
Any visitor finding himself in Griboedov’s, unless of course he was a total dim-wit, would realize at once what a good life those lucky fellows, the Massolit members, were having, and black envy would immediately start gnawing at him. And he would immediately address bitter reproaches to heaven for not having endowed him at birth with literary talent, lacking which there was naturally no dreaming of owning a Massolit membership card, brown, smelling of costly leather, with a wide gold border – a card known to all Moscow.
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Chapter 13
Quotes
He suddenly wiped an unexpected tear with his right sleeve and continued: ‘Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes! She, by the way, insisted afterwards that it wasn’t so, that we had, of course, loved each other for a long, long time, without knowing each other, never having seen each other, and that she was living with a different man ... as I was, too, then ... with that, what’s her ...’
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Chapter 19
Quotes
Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out!
Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!
No! The master was mistaken when with bitterness he told Ivanushka in the hospital, at that hour when the night was falling past midnight, that she had forgotten him. That could not be. She had, of course, not forgotten him.
First of all let us reveal the secret which the master did not wish to reveal to Ivanushka. His beloved’s name was Margarita Nikolaevna.
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Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev Quotes in The Master and Margarita
The The Master and Margarita quotes below are all either spoken by Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev or refer to Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
The foreigner sat back on the bench and asked, even with a slight shriek of curiosity:
‘You are - atheists?!’
‘Yes, we’re atheists,’ Berlioz smilingly replied, and Homeless thought, getting angry: ‘Latched on to us, the foreign goose!’
‘Oh, how lovely!’ the astonishing foreigner cried out and began swivelling his head, looking from one writer to the other.
‘In our country atheism does not surprise anyone,’ Berlioz said with diplomatic politeness. ‘The majority of our population consciously and long ago ceased believing in the fairy tales about God.’
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5
Quotes
Any visitor finding himself in Griboedov’s, unless of course he was a total dim-wit, would realize at once what a good life those lucky fellows, the Massolit members, were having, and black envy would immediately start gnawing at him. And he would immediately address bitter reproaches to heaven for not having endowed him at birth with literary talent, lacking which there was naturally no dreaming of owning a Massolit membership card, brown, smelling of costly leather, with a wide gold border – a card known to all Moscow.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13
Quotes
He suddenly wiped an unexpected tear with his right sleeve and continued: ‘Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes! She, by the way, insisted afterwards that it wasn’t so, that we had, of course, loved each other for a long, long time, without knowing each other, never having seen each other, and that she was living with a different man ... as I was, too, then ... with that, what’s her ...’
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19
Quotes
Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out!
Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!
No! The master was mistaken when with bitterness he told Ivanushka in the hospital, at that hour when the night was falling past midnight, that she had forgotten him. That could not be. She had, of course, not forgotten him.
First of all let us reveal the secret which the master did not wish to reveal to Ivanushka. His beloved’s name was Margarita Nikolaevna.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
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