Stepa Likhodeev: Characteristics of the character of the novel "Master and Margarita"

Who is Stepa Likhodeev? Everyone who knows the contents of Bulgakov's book, which tells about the arrival of the devil's suite in the Soviet capital, is familiar with the name of this character. It is about one of the heroes of the famous novel "Master and Margarita".

Residential apartment № 50

Stepa Likhodeev - the same director of the theater "Variety", who, taking advantage of his position, in connection with women, who does not perform official duties and drives a government car in vain. The role of Likhodeev in the imperishable Bulgakov story is not large. Nevertheless, his image is memorable.

This character, unlike the colleagues of his deceased neighbor, does not bring trouble to the Master. He, at first glance, is absolutely harmless. Nevertheless, Woland and his henchmen send the unlucky director a thousand kilometers from Moscow. For what? What was wrong with this seemingly good-natured tenant of a "bad" apartment? So, why was Stepa Likhodeev punished?

Morning misty

Stepa Likhodeev in the novel "Master and Margarita" is mentioned only a few times. In more detail - in the seventh chapter. And then the author gives him a total of several lines. However, it is worth mentioning that it is in the chapter "Bad apartment" that Satan's aides appear in front of the reader for the first time, and that's why it's so memorable.

One day after a stormy evening, Likhodeev wakes up in his bed (although awakening the status of the director of the Variety show this morning is difficult) and discovers an unknown person sitting next to him in a black beret. An unexpected visitor speaks with an accent, it seems to be an artist, with which Stepa Likhodeev, shortly before this ill-fated day, allegedly signed a contract. Director of the "Variety" does not remember this. And it's no wonder, after all, last night he drank port after vodka, then was explained to some lady in love, went to someone at the dacha in Skhodnya ... In short, the night was full.

Likhodeev, never remembering the events of the past days, drinks the vodka offered by the guest, eats out the delicious dishes and, being a cunning and clever man, tries to hide his forgetfulness before the stranger. And suddenly, going out into the anteroom, he discovers there an extraneous black cat of terrible size.

Unpleasant thoughts

In the front Stepa goes out, to call the "Variety" and consult about the forthcoming performance of a foreign artist. In his eyes, he throws a seal on the door of Berlioz. Still does not know anything about the death of his neighbor Stepa Likhodeev. Characteristics of the director of the "Variety", however, was given by the author precisely in describing the feelings that he possessed at the thought of possible trouble with the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine.

What does the seal say on the door of the room? The fact that her master had a misfortune. Thoughts about the death of a neighbor do not occur to Likhodeev. The first thing he thinks about is arrest. Memories of a stupid article, which Stepan recently for some reason foisted on Mikhail Alexandrovich, and about dubious conversations in the dining room over dinner, zakoposhilis in the head of poor Stepa. The experience of the fate of Berlioz did not touch his soul. Only unpleasant thoughts. It is not known what Stepa would have thought up this morning, before the sealed door of the writer, if not for the appearance of the above-mentioned cat.

That's how they go crazy!

What happened next in a bad apartment, no doubt, remember the fans of the novel "The Master and Margarita." Stepa Likhodeev, whose characteristics will be given a little later, returns to the room and sees his guest there in a more than strange company. In the armchair there is a rather unpleasant type with mustache-feathers and a cracked pince-nez. On the pouf, the same cat was housed, which a minute ago unceremoniously moved along the front.

"That's how they go crazy!" - thinks, seeing a drunk and famously snacking cat, director of the Variety. The characteristic of Likhodeev was given precisely by Behemoth and Koroviev. It is thanks to their clear and capacious cues that the reader understands what the neighbor of the tragically dead Berlioz is.

The image of Stepy Likhodeyev

What do Woland's assistants say about the director of the theater? They are known to know everything. And the fact that Likhodeev does not fulfill his job duties ("he rubs glasses at his superiors"), and the fact that he conducts a rackety lifestyle. Stepa, according to Koroviev, does nothing, because, like doing nothing, he does not know how. The main features of Likhodeev's character are disorder, laziness, a penchant for drunken orgies.

Stepa leads a depraved lifestyle, in addition, he is extremely irresponsible, which subsequently confirms Rimsky, receiving a strange telegram from Yalta and deciding that this is nothing more than the regular antics of Likhodeev. To characterize this character, one should add cunning (not wisdom at all), cowardice and deceit.

In Yalta

The punishment of Stepa Likhodeev is insanity. He is in Yalta, but the picturesque seascapes do not please him at all. How could you be so far away from the capital in just a few seconds? The author of the fate of Likhodeev in later chapters speaks only casually. It is known that the novel was subjected to repeated editing. In the final version of the work, Stepa, like his colleagues, is in Stravinsky's clinic.

And Likhodeev could be quite different ...

And in the first edition of the novel there was a character like Likhodeyev. His name was, in truth, different. Garusya Padulaev - this name was given to Bulgakov by the director of the theater in 1929. This hero had a prototype - an acquaintance of the writer (a native of sunny Vladikavkaz) Taudzhin Peizulayev. This man worked with the writer on the play "The Sons of the Mullah." In the original version of the novel, Garusya, like Stepa, leaves apartment No. 50, which is located in house 302 bis along Sadova Street, against her will. But Woland sends him not to Yalta, but to the home of his prototype - to Vladikavkaz.

On the way from the capital to a small homeland, Garusya enjoys the view of the wonderful Moscow landscape. That is, in Vladikavkaz Padulaev is not instant. In his journey there is even something romantic. Bulgakov with Padulaev treated much milder than with Likhodeyev. But later, after learning about the death of his co-author, the writer decides to radically change the image of the person expelled from Moscow. In 1936, Bulgakov again rewrites the novel. And now on the pages of this work appears the director of the theater named Likhodeev.

Patients of Stravinsky

After a two-day stay in the resort town, Stepa returns to Moscow, where he is immediately sent to a psychiatric clinic. In these difficult days for the Muscovites, Professor Stravinsky has a lot of work. First, a poet is brought to the hospital, incessantly narrating about Pontius Pilate and the intourist, whom we urgently need to catch. Then the entertainer comes to the clinic, demanding to return his head. Finally, one by one, they bring Stavinsky theatrical officials who, as if by agreement, beg for confinement in an armored cell.

Likhodeev spends eight days in the hospital. According to the latest edition of the novel, after some time he will receive the post of head of a gastronomic shop in Rostov.

A person who does not take his place

In one of the editions, the author called Stepu "the red director". What does this phrase mean? In the 20's and 30's, party officials began to appoint administrative posts in theaters. They, quite officially, were called "red directors".

These people were far from art. They, as Fagot said, "did nothing, and did not know how to do anything." Mikhail Bulgakov such administrators were well acquainted. The writer first came into contact with the theatrical world when staging a play called The White Guard. As usual, the author was ridiculed years later in one of his works by a famous director and well-known actors in those years. As for the theatrical officials - they served as the material for creating the image of Likhodeev.

The main vice

The characteristics of the director of the Variety show were already mentioned above. However, deceit and cunning are the features that all negative characters in the novel are endowed with. The main vice of Likhodeev is drunkenness. And this is what distinguishes it from other characters in the book.

In just a few days Woland and his assistants managed to stir up the whole of Moscow. About a huge black cat, cheeky regent in a checkered jacket, red-haired stumpy type and a mysterious foreigner in the city talked for a long time. Rumors and speculation did not give rest to Muscovites. Most of the gossip just heard about a strange gang of either psychics, or sorcerers, or deft crooks. But there were those who were not lucky enough to meet the evil forces, as they say, face to face. And these meetings became fateful.

Homeless stopped composing poetry. Varenukha stopped lying. Poplavsky forgot about the Moscow apartment. As for Stepa Likhodeev, he no longer drank ... a port of vodka. Only vodka, and only infused with currant buds.

Bad apartment

How can you talk about such a character as Stepa Likhodeev, and not say a word about the apartment in which he lived until his teleportation? But the theater director was doomed to disappear even when he crossed the threshold.

In the seventh chapter, in which the reader gets acquainted with Likhodeev, the author narrates about the former tenants of apartment No. 50. All of them seem to have sunk into the abyss. The first to disappear was the tenant of the jeweler's widow. The woman owned an apartment, which she, being a special enterprising, partially handed over to tenants, whose fate turned out to be rather sad. However, like everyone who was deceived by the apartment at the famous address. The mistress herself, and even her housekeeper Anfisa, disappeared without a trace. But if the whereabouts of the first tenants remained unknown, the fate of Berlioz and Likhodeev was familiar to everyone who lived in the house 302-bis, located on Sadovaya. True, Likhodeev was luckier than his neighbor. But Bulgakov had his own scores with writers.