The Master and Margarita

The story begins with a meeting between Berlioz, the editor-in-chief of a literary-artistic magazine and president of the literary group called MASSOLIT, and his discussion partner, Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, a writer who publishes under the pseudonym Bezdomny. The latter was asked to write an anti-religious poem for the aforementioned magazine, and Berlioz, a staunch atheist, explains that the poem is a mistake because, even though it depicts a flawed Jesus, it portrays a person who actually existed, which is false from Berlioz‘s point of view. However, their conversation is interrupted by Professor Woland. Woland, none other than Satan himself, enters the novel by arguing for the existence of Jesus, claiming that he even witnessed Pontius Pilate approving his crucifixion. In the same conversation, Woland also informs Berlioz of how he would soon die: decapitated. Woland‘s prophecy comes true, and Berlioz loses his head under a tram, just as predicted. This marks the beginning of a festival of madness, orchestrated by a supposed hypnosis. Woland has a team as efficient as it is malevolent, consisting of Koroviev, who always wore pince-nez with cracked lenses, Azazello with one fang protruding from his mouth, and Behemoth, a talking cat. The other thread of the novel revolves around the moment of Yeshua’s death sentence under the authority of Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Yeshua’s compassionate view of humanity creates internal conflict for Pilate, who tries to offer the crowd alternatives that could spare the condemned man, but without success.
In the chapter titled Ivan’s Duplication, the much-anticipated Master finally appears. His love story with Margarita begins at a time when she is unhappy in her marriage, but their relationship flows, unrestricted by norms, transcending any boundaries of the mind, seeking fulfillment in places that would not typically offer solutions for lovers. At the time of their meeting, the Master was completely disillusioned, isolated, and in great suffering. Margarita desires so much to bring him back to life that she is willing to make a pact with the devil to do so…
Woland is the embodiment of evil, Satan himself, but his role, paradoxically, is to identify human wickedness, expose it, and punish it. Thus, he acts more like a supreme judge who condemns the lack of morality in Moscow society. This clarity in addressing the religious dimension of evil invites us to a profound reflection: does human wickedness originate from hell, or is it simply a manifestation specific to human nature, which, when amplified and acted upon with varying degrees of consequences, leads the soul to the dark depths of Hell to be punished for eternity? This exposition challenges us to reevaluate not only the source of evil but also our responsibility in perpetuating or annihilating it.