Good and Evil

The Theme in the Work

The novel's moral thesis belongs to Yeshua Ha-Notzri. In chapter 2, asked why he calls everyone good people, he tells Pilate that there are no wicked people in the world, and he calls the centurion who had just whipped him unhappy. The opposite answer comes from Woland in chapter 29, to Matthew Levi, who calls him the spirit of evil: without evil, goodness would have nothing to do, just as the earth would not be earth without the shadows.

In Moscow, Woland and the retinue do not create evil, they expose what was already there. In chapter 9, Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy accepts the bundle from Korovyov and is arrested for the dollars it turns into; in 12, the audience tramples itself over the banknotes falling from the dome, and Woland concludes that they are ordinary people, corrupted by the housing problem; in 15, in Nikanor's dream, Kanavkin confesses the thousand dollars hidden at his aunt's house and is applauded, but Dunchil denies it until he is unmasked by his lover; in 18, the uncle of Berlioz comes from Kiev in search of his dead nephew's apartment, and the manager Sokov, who has savings, hears that he will die in nine months. In chapter 28, Woland's duo demoralizes the Torgsin store, where one can buy only with foreign currency.

The book also shows evil that cannot be reduced to pettiness. In chapter 16, Levi curses a God who lets Yeshua agonize on the cross; in 22, Woland shows Margarita, on a globe, a war in which a child dies, and introduces Abaddon, impartial between the two sides; in 23, the ball gathers poisoners, murderers and traitors, and the spy Baron Meigel is killed right there. In chapter 26, Judas of Kerioth is lured and stabbed by the same logic with which he betrayed. In 21, the same Margarita who destroys the apartment of Latunsky stops before a frightened little boy and comforts him.

The novel leaves both sentences standing and does not choose between them. Yeshua's survives Moscow: no one there is malicious, everyone is petty, and Woland treats them as such. Woland's survives Yershalaim, because it is the cowardice of a man who does not consider himself wicked that sends Yeshua to the cross. What the book refuses is the third position, that of Levi at Golgotha, which demands from heaven a clean separation between good and evil and ends, in chapter 29, by carrying a request from Yeshua to the devil himself.

Where It Appears

• Part One, Chapter 2: Pontius Pilate: Yeshua, who had just been struck by the centurion Mark, tells Pilate that there are no wicked people in the world and calls everyone good people.
• Part One, Chapter 9: Korovyov's tricks: Nikanor Ivanovich accepts from Korovyov, under the table, an extra bundle of money, hides it in the bathroom pipe and is arrested when the police find it turned into dollars.
• Part One, Chapter 12: Black magic and its revelation: After the audience fights over the banknotes falling from the ceiling and asks forgiveness for Bengalsky, Woland concludes that the Muscovites are ordinary people, who love money and were corrupted by the housing problem.
• Part One, Chapter 15: Nikanor Ivanovich's dream: In Nikanor's dream, Kanavkin confesses the thousand dollars hidden at his aunt's house and is applauded, but Dunchil denies it until his lover unmasks him.
• Part One, Chapter 16: The execution: Matthew Levi, who arrived too late to spare Yeshua the suffering by killing him with a knife, curses God aloud before the agony of the condemned man.
• Part One, Chapter 18: The unlucky visitors: Poplavsky, Berlioz's uncle, travels to Moscow only because of the apartment and is expelled from Woland's house, and the manager Sokov hears the exact sum of his savings.
• Part Two, Chapter 21: The flight: Margarita destroys the critic Latunsky's apartment and floods the neighbors, but stops only when she finds a frightened little boy, whom she calms with a gentle lie.
• Part Two, Chapter 22: By candlelight: Woland shows Margarita, on a globe, a war in which a small child dies, and says that Abaddon, whose work is impeccable, is impartial and feels compassion for both sides.
• Part Two, Chapter 23: Satan's grand ball: Margarita receives at the ball hanged men, poisoners and traitors from European history, and the spy Baron Meigel, regarded as a spy, is killed by Azazello, and his blood fills the goblet that Woland offers her.
• Part Two, Chapter 26: The burial: Nisa lures Judas of Kerioth to the garden of Gethsemane with the promise of a meeting, and two men stab him after taking the purse of thirty tetradrachms, which is later thrown into the courtyard of Caiaphas to simulate a revenge.
• Part Two, Chapter 28: The last adventures of Korovyov and Behemoth: In the Torgsin store, where one can buy only with foreign money, Korovyov speaks in defense of the hungry and against the customer in the lilac suit, bloated with salmon, who has foreign money.
• Part Two, Chapter 29: The fate of the Master and Margarita is decided: When Levi calls him the spirit of evil, Woland asks what goodness would do if evil did not exist and how the earth would be if the shadows vanished from it.

Passages

Yeshua's thesis, spoken to the man who will condemn him.

Woland's verdict on the Moscow audience.

Levi's revolt at Golgotha.

Abaddon, evil without a side.

Woland's answer to Yeshua's disciple.