What is the meaning of the title of the story "Dog Heart" Bulgakov?

What is the meaning of the title of the story "Dog Heart?" In it you can see the double meaning. The story could be named after the experiment conducted by Professor Preobrazhensky. The essence of it was to transplant the human heart into the body of the dog. About what came of this, is described later in the work. Also, thinking about what the meaning of the title of the story "Dog Heart", we note that the essence can be in people like Shvonder. Let us consider this variant in more detail.

People like Shvonder

They did not transplant dog hearts. They have such people since birth. Shvonder can be called a man without a spiritual world, a boor, a slacker. We can say that it is artificially created, because this hero does not have his own opinion. All his views are imposed on him from outside. Shvonder is a pupil of the proletariat, that is, a group of people who sing about a bright future, but do nothing at all. They do not know empathy, sorrow, pity. These people are stupid and uncultured. They have canine hearts since birth, although not all dogs have the same heart. That's what sense of the title of the story "Dog's Heart" can be seen.

Was the choice of the heroes of the work?

The ball is a step lower than Bormental and Professor Preobrazhensky. However, according to the level of development, it appears, certainly, higher than Sharikov and Shvonder. The intermediate position in the narrative structure of this work of Sharik (dog) emphasizes the dramatic position in society of a "mass" man who is faced with a choice: either to go through a natural spiritual and social evolution or to begin to degrade morally. The hero of the work of Sharikov, perhaps this choice was not. This creature was nevertheless artificially created, and therefore had the heredity of the proletariat and the dog. However, the whole society had a choice, and it was up to the individual to determine which way he would choose.

Allegory in the "Dog Heart"

In the biography of Mikhail Bulgakov, written in 1984 by E. Proffer, one can find an attempt to answer the question about what is the meaning of the title of the story "The Dog's Heart." The work is considered by Proffer as an allegory of the transformation of the entire Soviet society during the revolution as a warning about the dangers of human intervention in the affairs of nature.

The meaning of the title of the story "Dog Heart" is not only in the history of the transformation of Sharikov, but also in the history of society's change, which develops according to irrational, absurd laws. If in the story the fantastic plan is completed in a plot, then the moral-philosophical remains open: the "ball" on the earth continues to multiply and establish itself in life. Consequently, the "monstrous history" of the contemporary writer of society continues.

Features of fiction in the 1920s

Unfortunately, the tragic predictions of Mikhail Afanasyevich were justified. This was confirmed in the 1930s-1950s, when Stalinism was forming, as well as at a later time. One of the main problems in the literature of the 1920s was the problem of the organization of a "new society" and a "new man." The main feature of this time was that the idea of the collective prevailed. It was substantiated in the aesthetic programs of RAPP, constructivism, proletarianism, futurists.

The controversy of Mikhail Bulgakov

One can perceive the image of Sharikov as a polemic with theorists who substantiate the idea of a "new man". The writer in this novel, on the one hand, shows the psychology of the new "mass-like" hero (in the image of Sharikov) and the whole mass (the house with Shvonder at the head). But, on the other hand, Bulgakov opposes to them a hero-personality in the image of Professor Preobrazhensky. In the story, the driving force behind the conflict is the clash between Professor Preobrazhensky's ideas about society, which can be called reasonable, and the irrationality of the views of the masses of people, the absurdity of the organization of society.

"Dog's heart" - dystopia

So what is the meaning of the title "The Heart of a Dog" besides the above? The work can be perceived as an anti-utopia, which was realized in reality. There is a traditional image of the entire state system in the story and the opposition to this mechanism of an individual principle.

The image of Professor Preobrazhensky

Professor Preobrazhensky is shown as a man of an independent mind, of high culture, possessing in the field of science global knowledge. K.M. Simonov wrote that Bulgakov defended his view of the rights and duties of the intelligentsia with the greatest force in his story "The Heart of a Dog," and also that it is the color of society. The professor is a positive figure of the Pavlovian type. A man like him can ultimately come to socialism. He will come if he can see that socialism opens up scope for scientific work.

For him then the problem of eight or two rooms will not play a role. He defends his 8 rooms because the encroachment on them is viewed as an attempt not to own life, but to public rights. Philip Philipovich is critical of everything that is happening in the country since 1917. Preobrazhensky rejects the practice and theory of revolution. He was able to verify this in the course of his medical experiment, in which the experience of creating the so-called new man was unsuccessful.

Is it possible to remake the nature of Sharikov?

Answering the question about what is the meaning of the title of the story "The Heart of a Dog" by Bulgakov, one should consider the image of Sharikov in some detail. The nature of this hero can not be altered, just as it is impossible to change the inclinations of shvonders, cast-iron ones and the like. Bormental asks Preobrazhensky about what would have happened if Spinoza's brain had transplanted Sharikov. However, the professor was already convinced of the futility of human intervention in natural evolution. He says that he does not see the need to fabricate Spinoza artificially, when "any woman can give birth to him at any time". Such a conclusion for understanding the social implications of a work is even more important: one can not interfere artificially not only in natural evolution, but also in social evolution. To terrible consequences can lead to a violation in the society of moral equilibrium. This is the meaning of the title "The Heart of a Dog."