Who He Is
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 Moscow he is the one who climbs to the terrace to bring Woland the message about the Master's fate.
You are a black god! I curse you, god of bandits, their protector and their soul!
Trajectory
In chapter 16 he arrives too late: on the way, he had planned to slip between the soldiers of the procession and kill Yeshua with a knife to spare him the suffering, but he had no knife, so he ran into the city to steal one from a bread shop, and when he returned, the procession was already at the foot of the hill. He curses God for the silence of heaven, and when the soldiers come down the hill under the storm, he climbs up alone, cuts the ropes of the three bodies, and disappears with Yeshua's.
Levi's rebellion against divine silence in the face of innocent suffering echoes, in a far drier register, the rebellion of Ivan Fyodorovich in the chapter "Rebellion," from The Brothers Karamazov: here there is no theory about children's tears, only a lone man, too late, shouting at a sky that does not answer.
In chapter 26 he hides with Yeshua's body in a cave in the hill and, found by the guard, claims the right to bury him. Brought before Pilate, he refuses to serve in the procurator's library in Caesarea and declares what he will dedicate his life to, and it is to him that Pilate reveals what he has done.
I will kill Judas of Kerioth; that, yes, is what I will dedicate the rest of my life to
It was me
In chapter 29 he appears on the terrace, hostile and filthy, calls Woland "spirit of evil and sovereign of the shadows," and delivers the message from someone the chapter does not name (in chapter 32, Woland speaks of what Yeshua asked for the couple). He also asks that Margarita be taken away with the Master.
He has read the Master's work [...] and asks that you take the Master with you and return his tranquility
He did not earn the light, he earned the tranquility
Themes Embodied
The standard themes that run through him are God and the divine, Revenge, and Loyalty and betrayal.
Levi twice wants to kill for Yeshua and arrives late both times: the knife to shorten the agony at Golgotha meets a cordon already closed, and the promise to kill Judas meets Judas already dead by Pilate's order. On his third appearance, on the terrace in Moscow, he carries no knife, only a message, and it is the only one of the three in which what he brings arrives in time.
Relationships
- Yeshua Ha-Notzri: the condemned man beside whose cross he stays and whose body he carries away.
- Judas of Kerioth: the man he swears to kill.
- Pontius Pilate: who offers him the library in Caesarea and tells him "It was me."
- Woland: to whom he brings the message, calling him sovereign of the shadows.
- The Master and Margarita: the couple on whose fate he intercedes.