The Master and Margarita Character Analysis

Woland

Woland is the novel’s central character. He is Satan, choosing to adopt the form of Woland for his visit to Moscow. A paradoxical figure, Woland is both manipulative and honorable, ruthless and generous. His physical… read analysis of Woland

Margarita

Margarita is the heroine of the novel, a woman of around thirty years of age. Though she is married to someone else, her true love is the master, though she does not know if he… read analysis of Margarita

The Master

The master is one of the two titular characters. He is a weary man who has given up on life. The reader learns most of his back story when the master clambers through Ivan’s… read analysis of The Master

Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate is the fifth procurator of Judea and the subject of the master’s novel. His story represents the counterpoint narrative to the main action in Moscow, and centers on his decision to approve… read analysis of Pontius Pilate

Yeshua Ha-Nozri

Yeshua’s name is the Aramaic for Jesus of Nazareth. Yeshua is a vital character but actually does not appear much in the novel. Yeshua is brought before Pontius Pilate, accused of wanting to incite… read analysis of Yeshua Ha-Nozri

Matthew Levi

Levi is Yeshua Ha-Nozri’s only disciple during the Yershalaim narrative. Levi tries to shorten Yeshua’s suffering by stabbing him but can’t get close enough to the execution; once Yeshua does die, Levi cuts down… read analysis of Matthew Levi

Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev

Ivan is a young, misguided poet. The novel both starts and ends with him. In the novel’s opening, Ivan discusses a recent poem of his with Berlioz, who is telling him that the poem… read analysis of Ivan “Homeless” Nikolaevich Ponyrev

Mikhael Alexandrovich Berlioz

Berlioz is the chairman of Massolit, the writers’ union and the editor of a literary journal. He is a middle-aged man and prides himself on his atheism, rationality, and learnedness. Berlioz appears in the novel’s… read analysis of Mikhael Alexandrovich Berlioz

Styopa Likhodeev

On the second day of the novel, Styopa, the director of the Variety theater, wakes up in the apartment he shares with Berlioz nursing a terrible hangover. He is flabbergasted to see Woland sitting in… read analysis of Styopa Likhodeev

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy

Nikanor is the chairman of the tenants’ association asked with overseeing apartment no. 50, Berlioz’s property that is taken over by Woland and his entourage. Nikanor tries to behave in an officious manner and… read analysis of Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy

Koroviev

Koroviev is Woland’s right-hand man. He usually wears a pince-nez, a jockey’s cap and chequered clothes. Koroviev is adept at manipulating the Muscovites into showing the worst of themselves, for example, by convincing Nikanor… read analysis of Koroviev

Behemoth

Behemoth is huge black cat who can do everything that a human can do, including talking and walking on his hind legs. He is the most devilish of Woland’s crew and delights in causing… read analysis of Behemoth

Azazello

Azazello is a key member of Woland’s entourage. He is described as a short, fat, and broad-shouldered man whose mouth shows a single fang. His hair is flaming red and he often wears a… read analysis of Azazello

Hella

Hella is a beautiful redheaded succubus and part of Woland’s entourage. She is a vampire and almost always appears naked. Administering care is part of her role in the group: she rubs Woland’s injured… read analysis of Hella

Natasha

Natasha is Margarita’s devoted housemaid. When Margarita turns into a witch and leaves her old life behind, Natasha uses Azazello’s cream to become a witch herself. She then rides a hog—actually the neighbor… read analysis of Natasha

Nikolai Ivanovich

Nikolai is Margarita’s officious neighbor (where she lives with her husband, not the master). When Natasha becomes a witch by using Azazello’s cream (as Margarita has already done), Nikolai is astonished by… read analysis of Nikolai Ivanovich

Abaddon

Abaddon shows up late in the novel and is one of Woland’s demons. He represents destruction incarnate and is described by Woland as having a “rare impartiality”; that is, his destruction is not tempered… read analysis of Abaddon

Grigory Danilovich Rimsky

Rimsky is the financial director of the Variety theater. He tries to find out where Styopa has gone but nearly meets a terrible end when Hella and Varenukha, now a vampire, try to attack… read analysis of Grigory Danilovich Rimsky

Judas of Kiriath

Judas is a young man who works in a money-changing shop. He meets Yeshua and under false pretenses tricks him into criticizing the state authorities (who are lying in wait to arrest him). Judas is… read analysis of Judas of Kiriath

Joseph Kaifa

Joseph Kaifa is the high priest of the Jews. He is insistent that Yeshua must be executed, instead choosing to pardon Bar-Rabbin (it is customary to pardon one prisoner on the eve of Passover). It… read analysis of Joseph Kaifa

Banga

Banga is Pontius Pilate’s faithful dog, one of the only sources of joy in the procurator’s life. When Pilate waits for two thousand years to be set free from the torture he feels for… read analysis of Banga

Baron Meigel

Baron Meigel is an employee of the “Spectacles Commission” who offers Woland assistance in Moscow. Woland suspects him of espionage, however, and lures him to the Satan’s Ball. Here, Baron Meigel is shot by Koroviev… read analysis of Baron Meigel

Frieda

Frieda is a guest at Satan’s Ball. Her soul is damned because she suffocated her baby boy with her handkerchief. The child, however, was probably the result of a rape by the owner of a… read analysis of Frieda

Bar-Rabban

Bar-Rabban is the criminal due to be executed alongside Yeshua Ha-Nozri and two others. Because it is Passover, it is customary for the Jewish leadership to set one man free. Though Pontius Pilate tries to… read analysis of Bar-Rabban

Alexander Riukhin

Riukhin is a poet who helps transport Ivan Homeless from the restaurant at Griboedov’s to Stravinsky’s clinic. Ivan, distressed from his experience with Woland and Patriarch’s Pond, tells Riukhin that he thinks he is… read analysis of Alexander Riukhin

Maximillian Andreevich Poplavsky

Poplavsky is Berlioz’s uncle, who comes to Moscow from Kiev after receiving a strange telegram from his nephew informing his uncle that his funeral will soon be taking place. Poplavsky travels to Moscow more… read analysis of Maximillian Andreevich Poplavsky

Arkady Apollonovich

Arkady is the smug and rotund chairman of the Moscow Theaters’ “Acoustics Commission.” He appears during Woland’s Variety performance, demanding from his seat that the magicians explain what they are doing. Koroviev informs the… read analysis of Arkady Apollonovich

Aloisy Mogarych

Aloisy is the man who took over the master’s old apartment when the master was admitted to Dr. Stavinsky’s clinic. Woland makes him appear before them; Koroviev deletes Aloisy’s name from the apartment… read analysis of Aloisy Mogarych

Andrei Fokich Sokov

Andrei is the barman and buffet manager of the Variety theater. After Woland’s “black magic séance,” the theater customers use money from the show at the bar and buffet. When this money later turns… read analysis of Andrei Fokich Sokov

Minor Characters

Archibald Archibaldovich

Archibald is the manager of the restaurant at Griboedev’s. At the end of novel, when Koroviev and Behemoth visit the restaurant, Archibald tries to have them captured by the authorities. This fails, and they burn Griboedev’s to the ground.

Ivan Savalyevich Varenukha

Varenukha is the administrator of the Variety theater. When he tries to find out what’s happened to Styopa, he is ambushed and beaten by Behemoth and Koroviev. Hella then kisses Varenukha, turning him into a vampire.

Dr. Stravinsky

Stravinsky runs the psychiatric clinic at which both Ivan Homeless and the master are patients.

Mark Ratslayer

Ratslayer is the cruel and disfigured centurion (soldier) most favored by Pontius Pilate. He is known for his brutality and unflinching lack of emotion.

Aphranius

Aphranius is the shadowy figure that serves as Pontius Pilate’s head of secret police. Practically nothing happens in Yershalaim without him knowing about it. He helps orchestrate the scenario in which Pilate can murder Judas, revenge for Judas turning in Yeshua to the authorities.

Niza

Niza is the woman who, on Aphranius’s instruction, lures Judas outside of Yershalaim so that he can be murdered.

Dysmas

Dysmas is one of the other men executed at the same time as Yeshua Ha-Nozri.

Gestas

Gestas is one of the other men executed at the same time as Yeshua Ha-Nozri.

Zheldybin

Zheldybin is Berlioz’s assistant at Massolit, the writers’ union. When Berlioz dies, Zheldybin harbors the ambition that he can take over the top job.

Grunya

Grunya is the housemaid of Styopa Likhodeev. However, she never actually appears in the novel, having been made to disappear by Woland.

Anna Richardovna

Anna is Prokhor Petrovich’s secretary, understandably distraught when her boss is turned into a walking, talking suit.

Prokhor Petrovich

Prokhor is the chairman of the “Commission on Spectacles and Entertainment of the Lighter Type.” He is, in a way, most notable for his absence: Behemoth turns him into an empty—but still talking and gesturing—suit.

Georges Bengalsky

Bengalsky is the master of ceremonies at the Variety theater. He is temporarily decapitated by Behemoth as part of the black magic séance show. Bengalsky has a breakdown from the distress and ends up in Dr. Stravinsky’s clinic.

Annushka

Annushka is the old woman who inadvertently causes Berlioz’s death by spilling sunflower oil near the tram line. She lives below apartment no. 50 and, late in the book, tries to steal the jeweled horseshoe that Woland gifts to Margarita.

Latunsky

Latunsky heads up the editorial board that rejects the master’s Pontius Pilate novel (in the master’s back story). Latunsky also published an article damning the master’s work. Margarita takes revenge on Latunsky when, turned into a witch, she flies to his apartment and wrecks it.

Vassily Stepanovich Lastochkin

Vassily is the Variety Theater’s book-keeper, surprised to find himself in charge of the theater when everyone in positions above him goes missing.

Professor Kuzmin

Professor Kuzmin is the doctor who treats Andrei Fokich Sokov when he is told by Woland that he will soon die of liver cancer. After Andrei’s visit, Woland and his gang play tricks on Professor Kuzmin.