What It Is
Berlioz's head, cut off by the tram in chapter 3 after he slips on the sunflower oil spilled by Annushka, as Woland had announced hours earlier at Patriarch's Ponds. Stolen from the coffin on the morning of the funeral, it reappears in chapter 23 on a platter, before Woland, who turns it into a goblet at the end of Satan's ball.
Where It Appears
In chapter 1, Berlioz and Ivan Nikolayevich Bezdomny deny that any power exists beyond the human, and the foreigner announces Berlioz's death in detail.
A brick [...] never falls on anyone's head for no reason. And I assure you that this, in particular, does not threaten you in any way. You will die a different death
They're going to cut off your head!
Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and not only bought it, she has already spilled it. There will be no meeting
In chapter 3, the prophecy comes true in the same spot, under Ivan's eyes.
It was Berlioz's severed head
The pure comedy enters the work right next to the most violent scene of the book so far: the chapter that opens right after Berlioz's severed head, with which the previous one ends, shows, a few pages later, a cat trying to pay the tram fare.
In chapter 12, the scene repeats with another head: the master of ceremonies Bengalsky, who calls the tricks mass hypnosis, has his head torn off by Behemoth and returned unharmed after the audience begs forgiveness for him.
The master of ceremonies' comic agony, shouting for his own severed and returned head, is the physical counterpoint to Woland's verdict: the audience that has just begged for mercy is the same one that, minutes earlier, was fighting over the banknotes falling from the ceiling.My head, my head!
In chapter 19, Moscow buries Berlioz without his head, stolen from the coffin that morning. In chapter 23, Azazello brings the head on a platter, Woland tells him that Berlioz's theory, that death is the end of everything, will come true in him, since each is given according to his belief, and the head becomes a goblet; then Baron Meigel's blood fills the goblet that Woland offers to Margarita.
That is a fact. And a fact is the most stubborn thing in the world.
What It Means
In chapter 1, Berlioz's death can be read as the novel's answer to the atheism of the two friends.
Ivan's answer, that man himself manages his life, is the thesis the whole scene will dismantle: the novel does not refute the atheism of the two with an argument; it refutes it with a fact that happens.
The head opens and closes this refutation: in chapter 1 Berlioz denies that any power exists beyond the human, the head cut off in chapter 3 is the fact that answers him, and at the ball Woland uses the word "fact" in front of it to declare the prophecy fulfilled, and then applies to Berlioz himself his theory that death is the end of everything.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Death, Supernatural, Reason.
- Characters: Berlioz, Woland, Ivan Nikolayevich Bezdomny, Behemoth, Margarita.
- Place: Moscow, where Patriarch's Ponds is located.
- Neighboring symbol: Stravinsky's clinic, where Ivan is taken after witnessing the scene.