Heart of a Dog

By Mikhail Bulgakov

Thematic Repetition in Heart of a Dog

          In Heart of a Dog, I loved how Bulgakov’s repetition of certain words or phrases hammered a certain image or meaning into my brain almost without me realizing it. Some of these phrases are more obvious, like the songs the Philip Philippovich frequently sings to himself “Toward the sacred banks of the Nile…” and “From Seville and to Grenada…”(Bulgakov 123 and 15). This adds to the relatability and likability of his character, illustrating him as someone who is somewhat carefree and appreciative of music. It also helps contrast his usual witty, light-hearted demeanor with the troubled, temperamental outlook he takes on while Sharik is not entirely a dog. Philippovvich’s singing at the end of the novel also highlighted his return to his original behavior after the last operation, symbolizing the return to normalcy. After such a fantastic discovery, having everything simply revert back to the way it was makes a very powerful comment about nature. By attempting to control nature, Philippovich brought on unforeseen and almost catastrophic consequences. The chaos caused by Sharikov and the crime Sharikov very nearly committed, not the least of which being his potential crimes against women, only came to a resolved conclusion once all of the dead man died and the dog was once again a dog. Once Philippovich opened nature’s Pandora’s Box, he had a reaction reminiscent of a shopper who, when picking out a birthday card, unexpectedly opens one that blares music.

Another repeated theme that occurred only in a small section of the book was the color green. The word “green” is used five times over the span of four pages (Bulgakov 91-94). It describes the political book that is burned, the fire on the tip of Philippovich’s cigar, the shade of the lamp Phillipovich turns on, and finally, Phillipovich himself. This is at a moment of ambiguity. Philippovich takes this time to come to a decision that the reader is never brought in on after exclaiming “By God, I think I will,” without any explanation of his intent (Bulgakov 94). Green represents this ambiguity to me, repeatedly resurfacing as a distortion of well-accepted forms of enlightenment. It literally distorts enlightenment in the case of the lampshade by shrouding the lightbulb, one of man’s greatest scientific inventions. This suggests that the value of science and the truth science provides is not as clear cut as it is assumed to be. Fire, one of the key elements that first separated man from beast is also described as being green, illustrating that the differences between man and beast aren’t defined as previously thought. The political book is green as well, showing how the political line has been blurred as well. This green theme was introduced well before this section, though, by the man with green hair. He had bought hair dye and expected it to be one color but it turned out to be another: green. This foreshadowed Philippovich’s later reexamination of the situation, establishing that things aren’t always as they seem.