Forgiveness

The Theme in the Work

Forgiveness first appears in the key of farce. In chapter 12, after Behemoth tears off the head of master of ceremonies Bengalsky, Fagot asks the audience whether they should forgive him, and the whole theatre shouts that they should; Woland remarks that mercy sometimes stirs in the hearts of those people, and orders the head put back in place.

The serious case begins at the ball, in chapter 23. Frida smothered her newborn son with a handkerchief and, for thirty years, upon waking, she finds the handkerchief on her bedside table; when she reaches Margarita, she can only repeat her own name, and Margarita tells her to drink and not think of anything. In chapter 24, invited to ask for a reward, Margarita asks first for Frida. Woland refuses to do it, because that is a matter for another department, and it is Margarita herself who forgives her; that same night she refuses to let the retinue go after the critic Latunsky.

Chapter 32 reenacts the scene on a larger scale. Before Pontius Pilate, seated for nearly two thousand years in a stone armchair, Margarita asks whether twelve thousand moons for a single one is not too great a punishment, and Woland asks her whether she is repeating Frida's story. She cries out that they should let him go; Woland replies that there is no need to intercede, because "the one who wants to talk with him" has already done so, and he hands the Master the phrase that ends the Master's novel. The Master shouts that Pilate is free. In the Epilogue, in the dream of Ivan Nikolayevich Bezdomny, Pilate begs the young man in the ragged tunic who walks beside him along the lunar path (the Epilogue does not name him; the reader recognizes Yeshua Ha-Notzri) to say that the execution never happened, and hears that it did not happen.

The book separates forgiveness from power. Woland, who has power to spare, forgives no one: in chapter 24 he says he did nothing, and in 32 he warns that the request has already been made by someone else. Those who forgive are those who have a right to the offense or to history: Margarita, who asks for Frida before asking for herself; the Master, author of the novel in which Pilate was held; and Yeshua, the only victim the procurator needed to hear. The forgiveness at the end does not come as a judge's sentence; it comes in the form Pilate asks for in the Epilogue, spoken by the one who suffered the execution.

Where It Appears

• Part One, Chapter 12: Black magic and its revelation: When Behemoth tears off Bengalsky's head, the audience asks forgiveness for him, and Woland remarks that mercy sometimes stirs in the hearts of those people.
• Part Two, Chapter 23: Satan's grand ball: Frida, condemned to find every night the handkerchief with which she smothered her newborn son, climbs the ball's staircase and repeats her own name to Margarita, like someone asking for help.
• Part Two, Chapter 24: The rescue of the master: Margarita asks Woland to stop holding out to Frida the handkerchief with which she smothered the baby, and when he refuses to act, she calls Frida and tells her that she is forgiven.
• Part Two, Chapter 32: Forgiveness and eternal refuge: Woland tells Margarita that she need not intercede for Pilate, because the one who wants to talk with him has already done so, and then the Master shouts "He is free!"
• Epilogue: In Ivan's dream, Pilate climbs the lunar path with Yeshua and begs that he be told the vile execution never happened.

Passages

Frida at the ball, asking for help with her own name.

The forgiveness that Woland refuses to give and Margarita gives.

Woland's answer to Margarita's cry for Pilate.

The phrase with which the Master ends his own novel.

Pilate's plea on the lunar path.