Doctor Bormenthal

Doctor Bormenthal is the medical assistant who documents the transformation of Sharik and remains closely involved in the consequences of the experiment. The novel presents him both through the clinical record he signs and through decisive interventions in the household’s escalating struggle with Sharikov. His role links scientific observation to personal loyalty, and, at the end, to the restoration of Sharik’s canine life.

Medical Role and Case Record

The experiment’s case record identifies its subject as a male mongrel dog named Sharik, approximately two years old. Bormenthal’s notes follow the developing organism through observations and recorded speech, while also registering the uncertainty surrounding its changes. As the transformation proceeds, he reports that Professor Preobrazhensky still feels unwell and that he himself is carrying out most of the observations, including pictures and recordings. The notes thus establish Bormenthal not as a distant observer but as the person doing much of the practical work of documenting the experiment.

The case notes end by describing the result as a new organism to be studied in its own right. Bormenthal signs the conclusion as a medical doctor and assistant to Professor Preobrazhensky, with verbatim speech reports, recordings, and photographs listed as appendices. This documentary frame gives his observations formal authority, but it also marks the limits of what the record can settle: the new organism is declared a subject of study, while the practical and social consequences of its emerging identity continue beyond the case file.

The Household Conflict

As rumours about the experiment spread, Bormenthal’s notes describe crowds gathering in the street and sensational newspaper reports, including a false story about a child born able to play the violin. The growing public attention turns the household’s private experiment into a source of wider confusion. His account captures the mismatch between what is happening inside the apartment and the fantastic explanations circulating outside it.

The conflict becomes administrative as Sharikov claims a place in the residential association and demands an entitlement of thirty-seven square feet from the tenant in charge of the apartment. Bormenthal is present when Sharikov produces three differently coloured pieces of paper to support that claim. The papers make the demand concrete: an experimental subject’s disputed identity is being translated into a claim on domestic space through institutional membership and documentation.

The same bureaucratic machinery gives Sharikov a job as a controller in the Moscow Cleansing Department, responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds. Bormenthal and Professor Preobrazhensky read the appointment paper, and the professor understands that Shvonder arranged it. The appointment places Sharikov in an official position involving animals, sharpening the contrast between the dog from whom he was made and the authority the new paperwork confers on him.

Allegiance and Retaliation

Bormenthal’s conduct in the household shows that his relation to Professor Preobrazhensky is not merely professional. When Sharikov’s complaint falsely accuses the professor of threatening Shvonder, making counter-revolutionary speeches, and ordering Zina to burn Engels, Bormenthal is included among those denounced as politically suspect. The complaint also claims that he is living secretly in the apartment without registration. Sharikov signs the document in his capacity as a department controller, and Shvonder countersigns it as chairman of the house committee. The accusation converts a personal and domestic conflict into an official-sounding case against the doctors and their household.

Later, a charge sheet names Professor Preobrazhensky, Bormenthal, Zina, and Darya as responsible for the murder of Sharikov. The accusation gives the transformed creature’s disappearance an official formulation, even as the professor refuses its premise and identifies Sharikov as the dog on whom he operated. Bormenthal is therefore implicated not only in the experiment’s creation but also in the authorities’ attempt to define its outcome as a crime.

When Shvonder appears again in the apartment, Bormenthal declares that he will personally throw him downstairs if he returns. Shvonder asks for the remark to be entered in the report. The exchange turns Bormenthal’s protective loyalty into another item of official record: a threat preserved on paper, while the people involved continue to contest whose account of events will prevail.

Ending and Narrative Significance

After the confrontation, the policeman catches Shvonder as Fyodor supports him from behind. Professor Preobrazhensky calls for valerian, and Bormenthal’s threat remains part of the confusion recorded by the report. The narrative then shifts from the attempted investigation to the settled evening inside the apartment. Bormenthal can be heard tidying the shelves in the consulting room while Sharik lies on the carpet beside the leather couch.

The dog’s closing thoughts acknowledge the circular scar on his head but treat it as a minor cost of his present comfort. Nearby, Professor Preobrazhensky hums the recurring refrain about the sacred Nile, while the household resumes its ordinary evening sounds. Bormenthal’s quiet work at the shelves helps establish that the doctors’ domestic world has endured the official accusations. His character consequently occupies two distinct registers: the signed case record that frames the experiment as medical observation, and the loyal assistant whose actions belong to the personal conflict the record cannot contain.