The Master and Margarita

Rimsky is shocked by Woland’s performance. He sits in his office, examining the money given out by Korovyov. A scream from outside makes him rush to the window. He sees the women in the street who were wearing the new fashionable clothes are now naked because their clothes have vanished. Rimsky receives a telephone call in which an unknown and threatening female voice tells him not to contact anyone or “you’ll be sorry” (116). Rimsky is afraid. Before he can flee his office, Varenukha enters. Rimsky notices his colleague smells of death and darkness. He is acting strangely and when Rimsky asks where Varenukha has been, Varenukha tells him an odd story. Varenukha says Styopa got very drunk and while “fooling around” (117) sent telegrams falsely marked as being from Yalta. Now, he is sobering up in a police cell. Rimsky privately wonders whether Styopa will be sacked, which may lead to Rimsky being promoted. However, Rimsky quickly realizes that the “weird and unnatural” (118) Varenukha is not telling the truth. Varenukha tries to mask his face behind his hat, and when Rimsky tries to ring a bell in his office to summon help, the bell is broken. Rimsky realizes Varenukha casts no shadows. Varenukha locks the door. Rimsky runs to the window, where he sees Hella outside. Hella is naked. She reaches through a vent in the wall and grabs Rimsky. Meanwhile, Varenukha has begun to levitate. Hella tries to crawl into the room through the vent. Rimsky notices she is also drenched in “the smell of the grave” (120). As Rimsky is convinced he is about to die, a cockerel crows outside to signal dawn. Hella curses and Varenukha screams. Both fly quickly though the window. Rimsky runs from his office, feeling decades older. He boards a train and leaves Moscow.

Bosoi has been admitted to the asylum where Ivan and the Master are staying. He has denied all charges against him, but the authorities have been unable to verify his wild stories about magic, and he is “unfit for any kind of conversation” (123). After arriving at the asylum, he was sedated. Bosoi experienced a very vivid dream while under sedation in which he relived his police interrogation in a fantastical, theatrical setting. The strange and magic trial ends with the audience agreeing to hand over any foreign currency. As the people in the dream become more intimidating, they melt away into the nurse at the asylum. She soothes Bosoi, who has become so distressed that his shouts woke Ivan. The doctor gives Ivan a sedative of his own, so Ivan also slips into a vivid dream about Bald Mountain.

Ivan dreams about Yershalaim. A procession follows the condemned prisoners, including Yeshua, to Bald Mountain. The prisoners wear signs around their necks labelling them each as an “Outlaw and Rebel” (131). The soldiers, who are roasting in the hot sun, hope the men will die soon. Only Pilate’s private guard Ratkiller seems unbothered by the “unbearable heat” (132) and keen to see the men put to death. Levi watches the procession from the “worst” (133) position. He has tried and failed to push past the guards to speak to Yeshua. He cries to himself, holding a stolen knife against his chest. As the executioners prepare the men, he takes quick notes. He pleads for God to “send [Yeshua] death” (134). Levi blames himself for Yeshua’s suffering, as he hoped to stab Yeshua sooner and save his friend the pain and misery of crucifixion.

Yeshua is nailed to the cross. After four hours, he is still alive. Levi rages at God for failing to save Yeshua and yells out “meaningless words” (136). The sun begins to set, and Levi feels a storm brewing. Dust blows into his eyes. At the top of Bald Mountain, Yeshua is flanked by two other men. Gestas sings a “crazed, raspy-sounding song” (137) and Dismas writhes in agony. Yeshua drifts in and out of consciousness. Flies buzz around his body. A man wearing a dark hood (later revealed as the head of Pilate’s secret police, Afranius) calls for a solider to hold a wet sponge to Yeshua’s lips. Yeshua asks for the water to be given instead to Dismas. Afranius removes the sponge from his spear and instead stabs Yeshua “through the heart” (138). Afranius calls out with praise for Pilate as Yeshua dies. The storm begins as Dismas and Gestas are also killed. Levi is left alone on the hill with the dead prisoners. He cuts the bodies down from the crosses and carries Yeshua’s “wet, naked body” (139) away from Bald Mountain.

A large queue “a mile long” (140) forms to buy tickets for Woland’s next show. Rimsky, Varenukha, and Styopa are all missing, so the theater’s bookkeeper, Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin is in charge. When the police come to ask him about the previous evening’s strange events, he offers little information. He was not present, so he can only tell them what he has heard. A police dog seems greatly disturbed by the theater and it tries to leap through a nearby window. The evening’s show is cancelled on police orders. Lastochkin is sent to the Entertainment Commission to explain what happened and to deposit the box office takings. However, his trip is hindered by the refusal of every taxi driver to accept his fare. The taxi drivers have learned that money taken from people at the Variety Theater has a habit of disappearing. They refuse to pick up Lastochkin.

When Lastochkin finally arrives at the government office, he discovers the place is in “chaos” (143). He is taken to see the commission chairman, Prokhor Petrovich, whose body has vanished. Instead, Petrovich has become “an empty suit” (143) that performs the same actions and functions as a person only without the person inside. Lastochkin is told that a large black cat entered the office and caused the disturbance. Lastochkin links this black cat to the one that was supposedly involved in Woland’s show. He walks to an affiliate office but discovers this office is also in chaos: the staff cannot help but burst into song at random intervals. Doctors are summoned to cure this spate of mass hypnosis. Eventually, all the members of staff are taken to the asylum. When Lastochkin finally tries to deposit the box office takings, he discovers the money has been turned into a foreign currency. He is arrested for being one of “those tricksters from the Variety” (148).

Maximilian Andreyevich Poplavsky is an industrial economist and the uncle of the now-dead Berlioz. He rushes to Moscow after receiving a “garbled” (149) telegram from his nephew, in which Berlioz described his own death. Poplavsky does not care about attending Berlioz’s funeral; he believes he will inherit his nephew’s desirable apartment. He visits the management office and then goes to the apartment. The door opens, but all Poplavsky can see is a large black cat. Korovyov appears and on learning that Poplavsky is Berlioz’s uncle launches into a dramatic performance of grief. When Poplavsky asks about the mysterious telegram, Korovyov blames the black cat. Behemoth speaks up, insisting he has done nothing wrong and asking to see Poplavsky’s documentation. On examining Poplavsky’s passport, Behemoth says Poplavsky’s invitation to Berlioz’s funeral is “hereby revoked” (152). On Behemoth’s orders, Azazello appears and hits Poplavsky with a roast chicken. Poplavsky falls back down the stairs and runs from the building, passing a “diminutive elderly gentleman with an unusually sad face” (153) on his way out. Knowing the man will likely be thrown out by the strange people in the apartment, Poplavsky hides in a closet to wait for the man to return.

The man in the suit is the barman from the Variety Theater, Andrei Fokich Sokov. He wants to complain about the fake money at the theater. Hella welcomes him into the apartment and leads him to Woland. As they talk, Woland criticizes Sokov for providing low quality, “spoiled” (156) food and drink at the theater bar. Sokov tries to defend himself. He asks about the disappearing money. When Woland tells him to sit, however, the stool collapses beneath Sokov. The barman spills wine over himself and declines Woland’s offer to play cards or dominoes. Woland takes offence. He reveals to Sokov that his performance had a hidden agenda. The show was performed because Woland “wanted to see the citizens of Moscow enmasse” (157). Sokov admits that many people from Moscow are crooked or dishonest. Woland asks about Sokov’s savings (not a huge amount) and reveals that Sokov will die of liver cancer in “nine months” (158).

Korovyov tells Hella to remove Sokov from the apartment. As he leaves, Sokov is shocked when his hat turns into a small black kitten. The kitten scratches his head and runs away. Sokov is worried. He goes to “the leading specialists in liver disease” (160), who does not believe that Sokov has cancer. Instead, Sokov is sent to a neurologist. Later, the doctor notices that the fee paid by Sokov has turned into labels from wine bottles. When he tries to complain, the labels turn into a saucer of milk, and the doctor sees a black kitten drinking from the saucer. A sparrow appears and dances to the music from an enchanted gramophone. The sparrow defecates in the doctor’s ink and smashes a “graduation photo of the class of 1894” (162). When the doctor calls for help, Azazello appears in a nurse’s outfit. A man with a moustache arrives to assure the doctor that everything that has happened to him was “all nonsense” (163).