The Theme in the Work
Love enters the novel late, in chapter 13, and enters told secondhand: it is the Master who narrates to Ivan Nikolayevich Bezdomny, in the asylum, the meeting, the previous spring, with an unknown woman who carried yellow flowers. She was married, began visiting him every day in the basement near the Arbat, read the novel about Pilate while he was writing it, and was the one who began calling him Master. When the critics' attacks sicken him with fear and he burns the manuscript, she arrives in time to save a bundle of pages and promises to leave her husband; he refuses, sick and afraid of dragging her down with him.
The Second Part opens with her, in chapter 19, and only then does she gain a name: Margarita Nikolayevna, thirty years old, married to a rich, good man whom she does not love, having lived for months in mourning for a man no one knows is alive. The narrator interrupts the story to assure the reader that true love exists. From then on love drives the plot: she accepts the invitation of Azazello because he promises news of the Master, applies the cream and leaves her husband a farewell note in chapter 20, destroys the apartment of the critic Latunsky in chapter 21, and presides over the ball of Woland in 23.
In chapter 24, when Woland offers her a reward, she asks first for Frida and only afterward for the Master, who returns from the asylum sick and frightened. From then on, love appears above all as constancy: in chapter 29, Matthew Levi asks Woland to take with him the one who loved the Master and suffered for him; in 30, the Master asks her to return home, and she refuses; in 32, it is she who leads him to the eternal house and promises to guard his sleep.
The novel gives love the initiative it denies to talent: the Master writes the book and burns it, Margarita saves what is left from the fire and afterward takes him out of the asylum. The image from chapter 13, love that appears like a murderer from nowhere in a side street, already warns that it will not ask permission of current morality, and indeed it does not ask: adultery, the pact and witchcraft are the price she pays, and the book does not censure her for any of them. The ending rewards this love with peace, not glory, and the one who has the last word on the walk to the eternal house is she, not the Master.
Where It Appears
- Part One, Chapter 13: The hero appears: The Master tells Ivan that he fell in love instantly with a woman with yellow flowers, that she read his manuscripts, and that he refused to drag her into his own ruin.
- Part Two, Chapter 19: Margarita: Margarita Nikolayevna, married to a rich and good husband whom she does not love, lives in mourning for the missing Master and sees only two ways out: to forget him or to die.
- Part Two, Chapter 20: Azazello's cream: Margarita, who has carried a pain since the Master's disappearance, applies Azazello's cream, leaves her husband a final farewell note and flies out the window.
- Part Two, Chapter 21: The flight: Margarita shouts the name of Latunsky, the critic whose article destroyed the publication of the Master's novel, then breaks into his apartment and destroys it with a hammer.
- Part Two, Chapter 24: The rescue of the master: Margarita asks Woland for the Master back, and he appears, brought from the asylum, frightened and without strength, telling her not to cry because he is very ill.
- Part Two, Chapter 29: The fate of the Master and Margarita is decided: Matthew Levi asks Woland to take Margarita as well, who loved and suffered for the Master, and Woland agrees and sends Azazello to see to it.
- Part Two, Chapter 30: It's time! It's time!: The Master, calling himself a sick and wretched man, asks Margarita to go home, and she refuses.
- Part Two, Chapter 32: Forgiveness and eternal refuge: She leads the Master across the stone bridge to the eternal house and tells him to listen to the rest and the silence that were not given to him in life.
Passages
The meeting in the side street, told by the Master, with the image that defines love in the book.
Love arose before us like a murderer who comes out of nowhere in a side street, and struck us full force.
The opening of the Second Part, in which the narrator speaks directly to the reader.
Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in the world? Then cut out the tongue of that infamous liar!
The note left for her husband, the break without return.
Forgive me and forget me as soon as possible. I am abandoning you for eternity. Do not look for me, it is useless. I became a witch because of the misfortunes and sorrows that befell me. My time has come. Goodbye.
The reunion, which has nothing triumphant about it.
Don't cry, Margot, don't make me suffer. I am very ill.
The arrival at the eternal house, in Margarita's voice.
Listen to the rest [...] listen and delight in what was not given you in life, the silence.