Clavis Libri
Plans Sign in

The Master and Margarita

Characters

Character Map

Who is who, and who belongs to whom. Click a name to open the character page.

Yershalaim the Master's novel Moscow the 1930s Woland, the retinue and the ball the devil on a visit loves writes about has as disciple returns the manuscript to grants the wish to brings the cream to intercedes for destroys the apartment of attacks the novel of commissions the poem from announces the death of denounces serves serves serves serves condemns gives disguised orders to orders the killing of denounces is a disciple of PP Pontius Pilate the procurator of Judea YH Yeshua Ha-Notzri the wandering philosopher A Afranius chief of the secret guard JK Judas of Kerioth Yeshua's betrayer ML Matthew Levi Yeshua's disciple M The Master the nameless writer Mg Margarita the beloved who becomes a witch IB Ivan Bezdomny the poet committed to the clinic B Berlioz the editor who dies under the tram L Latunsky the critic who attacked the Master's novel NB Nikanor Bosoy the building manager W Woland the professor of black magic K Korovyov Woland's interpreter B Behemoth the retinue's giant cat A Azazello Woland's messenger H Hella Woland's maid F Frida the ball guest who is forgiven loves, protects, forgives condemns, attacks, betrays follows, shelters, teaches serves, obeys, carries out decides the fate of
The Master A historian and translator who won one hundred thousand rubles in a lottery bonus, left the museum, rented two rooms in the basement of a small house near the Arbat and began writing, in isolation, a novel about Pontius Pilate. He refuses his own name and... Margarita Margarita Nikolayevna, thirty years old, married to a rich, good husband whom she does not love, who has lived in mourning for months for the Master, who disappeared after burning the novel. In chapter 13 she appears throughout without a name, only as "she";... Woland A foreigner with mismatched eyes, one green and one black, who arrives in Moscow as a contracted consultant to decipher the manuscripts of the necromancer Gerbert d'Aurillac and says he is a specialist in black magic. From his calling card Ivan can read only... Korovyov A tall man with a broken pince-nez from Woland's retinue, who introduces himself as Woland's interpreter and, at the Variety Theatre, also as Fagot. He is the one who negotiates apartment 50 (see apartment 50) with Nikanor Ivanovich and who receives Margarita... Behemoth The enormous black cat of Woland's retinue, who walks on its hind legs, plays chess with live pieces, and talks. It appears more in episodes than in lines; the speech highlighted here is the one from the shootout in apartment 50 (see apartment 50). In chapter... Azazello Member of Woland's retinue, red-haired and with a visible fang, who appears almost only through what he does: invitations, expulsions, a death at the ball, and the final wine. He is the one who fetches Margarita and who takes her, with the Master, out of... Hella Red-haired young woman of Woland's retinue, whom he introduces to Margarita as his own maid. She appears earlier in scenes where the novel does not yet name her, in chapters 10, 12, and 14; then she opens the door to Sokov in chapter 18, where Korovyov calls... Abaddon Demon in Woland's service, a thin, very pale man in dark glasses, named Abaddon. Woland shows him to Margarita in chapter 22, after saying that the retinue presented so far, Behemoth, Azazello, Korovyov, and Hella, is complete, and credits him with the work... Yeshua Ha-Notzri The prisoner brought before Pontius Pilate, accused of inciting the people to destroy the temple of Yershalaim, who explains that he preached no destruction, but rather that the temple of the old faith will fall and a temple of truth will rise in its place.... Pontius Pilate The procurator of Judea in the novel that the Master writes and whom, according to Woland, Woland witnessed. He receives Yeshua Ha-Notzri for trial, concludes that the prisoner is a harmless philosopher and, even so, confirms the death sentence. Matthew Levi The only man who remains near the crosses at Golgotha, sitting on a stone while a double cordon of Roman soldiers keeps the curious away, with no means to act. He crosses both planes of the novel: in Yershalaim he is the one who stays with Yeshua's body; in... Judas of Kerioth Young man who invited Yeshua into his own home, treated him with hospitality, and insistently asked for his opinion on the power of the state; it was over that answer that men came in and arrested Yeshua. Pilate understands from the question that the... Afranius The chief of Pontius Pilate's secret guard in Yershalaim. He appears in chapters 25 and 26: it is through him that Yeshua's last remark reaches the procurator, and he is the one who sets Judas's death in motion. Ivan Nikolayevich Bezdomny Ivan Nikolayevich, a young poet with the pen name Bezdomny, author of an anti-religious poem written to order, whom Berlioz asks to stop portraying Jesus with negative traits and to start denying that he ever existed. He is the witness to Berlioz's death and... Berlioz Magazine editor and chairman of the council of the Massolit literary association, an atheist and a rationalist, who on the bench at Patriarch's Ponds wants to convince Ivan to deny that Jesus existed, citing Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus as... Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy Chairman of the residents' association of the building that houses apartment 50 (see apartment 50), besieged by thirty-two complaints from neighbors who want Berlioz's vacant rooms. He appears in two episodes: the deal with Korovyov and the dream at the... Latunsky Literary critic who, together with Ariman and the writer Mstislav Lavrovich, signs the wave of hostile articles against the Master's novel. He appears in the articles, recounted by the Master, and in the apartment that Margarita destroys. Frida Guest at Satan's ball, condemned thirty years ago to find, on waking, on her own bedside table, the handkerchief (see Frida's handkerchief) with which she smothered her newborn son. She appears in chapters 23 and 24: at the ball she only repeats her own name,...

Other characters