Reflections on/from the Asylum in Chekhov’s

Abstract

Within both Anton Chekhov’s "Ward No. 6" and Mikhail Bulgakov’s "The Master and Margarita" the institution of the asylum serves as a lens to observe the corrupt character of Russian society at discrete historical moments. While the two works differ in the specific implications resulting from the incarceration of criminally deviant and diseased, but also dissenting intellectual characters in their respective societies, they are united by similarities in the oppressive and coercive representations of authority.