Pan's melody: the dance of creative freedom

This work examines a comparative analysis of The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, around the theme of the necessity of evil. The same has been analysed from the perspective of deep psychology where the point of the encounter between the two works is precisely Pan being the archetype of panic and unfairly misjudged as Satan. The dissertation follows a hermeneutical trajectory that traces a circular path from the symbolic symptoms of characters to their corresponding archetypal matrix on the path towards self-healing. This emerging representation is observed in Victorian and Soviet societies that reject the undeniable evidence of irrationality or, more accurately, the resurgence of the suppressed. We shall endeavour to comprehend the direction in which the bucolic satyr leads the characters, for they are not afflicted by madness but rather by a state of utmost naturalness. This state is the most innate, profound, and instinctual experience that can be attained. Furthermore, in an anti-hierarchical perspective of canonical literature, new light will be given to Machen’s compelling work, which has unfortunately been relegated to the margins.