The central theme of The Master and Margarita is good and evil, put to the test in two times: in Moscow, where the devil arrives, and in Yershalaim, where Pilate judges Yeshua. Around them revolve cowardice, forgiveness, love, and the fate of art in a world that persecutes it.
The moral thesis comes from Yeshua, who tells Pilate: "There are no wicked people in the world." The counterpoint comes from Woland, who asks Matthew Levi "what would your goodness do if evil did not exist." The novel leaves both sentences standing. In Moscow, the retinue exposes the evil that was already there: the audience at the Variety Theater tramples itself over the money falling from the dome, and Woland concludes that they are ordinary people, "only the housing problem corrupted them."
In Yershalaim, evil has another face: the cowardice of a man who does not think himself wicked. Pilate concludes that the prisoner committed no crime and yet confirms the sentence, and the phrase of Yeshua that reaches him after the execution is the book's yardstick: "of all human weaknesses, the one he considers worst is cowardice." Pilate remains for about two thousand years bound to the interrupted conversation. The Master, who burned his own novel out of fear, receives peace and not light. Margarita, who risks everything for love, asks for clemency for Frida and for Pilate.