Anne Nies

Professor Foeller-Pituch

English 368-CN

02 May 2011

The Significance of Woland’s Ball in The Master and Margarita

Woland’s Ball, which takes place in the chapter titled “Satan’s Grand Ball,” is an

illuminating chapter that provides the reader with a very clear examples of how Bulgakov twists

ideas and preconceptions while laying the framework for subsequent chapters as well as

wrapping up some details from previous chapters. The most enlightening features of Woland’s

Ball provide the reader with some very clear ideas about what behaviors prevents one from being

eligible to achieving peace and what Woland’s true purpose in Moscow is. The Ball itself is a

transitionary piece for the novel as it moves the reader from the general chaos created by

Woland’s Retinue through a grand ceremony and into the conclusion of the novel. Through the

ball a number of key concepts for the novel are made clear and we are given the necessary

elements for the Master and Margarita to be reunited.

Although the chapter is titled “Satan’s Grand Ball,” although it takes place on a full

moon, and although it has many elements that seem to point towards the idea of Woland being

demonic or Satan himself, there are many other factors of the ball that contradict that idea. In

Between Two Worlds Baratt states that “it is the expectation that Satan’s Ball is to be a witches’

sabbath that remains the most prominent demonological element in this chapter,”1 could be

easily contended since the main idea (to pervert Christian Mass) of a witches sabbath or Black

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1 Andrew Barratt, Between two worlds : a critical introduction to the Master and Margarita (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987) 235.

Mass is in no way portrayed (Baratt does acknowledge that “there is nothing - to suggest a

deliberate travesty of Christian ritual.”2). Instead it seems more that the “demonic expectations”

of Woland are more clearly met in the more subtle and seemingly dissociated scenes of the blood

bath, poodle pendant, poodle foot cushion, the “glass floor with hellish furnaces blazing beneath

it and diabolical with chefs,”3 and “the exotic details”4 of the ball. What is ultimately most

notable though is that although the revelers are criminals and the women are naked there is no

sexual activity mentioned, Woland himself never harms another, the ball itself takes place in a

brightly lit hall, and that other than the greeting of the guests and Woland’s “metamorphosis”

into “a long black robe with a steel saber on his hip”5 nothing overtly ritualistic happens.

Therefore the missing satanic ritual is an indicator to the reader that “Satan’s Grand Ball” is the

point at which they should more closely begin to consider who and what Woland is and even

more importantly what his purpose is.

In closely observing Woland’s Ball, the first item of clear significance is that for the

majority of the ball Woland himself is not present. The ball itself is foremost a test for

Margarita. The first indication that the ball is a test is when Korovyov tells Margarita “The

hostess of the ball will be rewarded for that a hundred times over”6. Then as Margarita suffers,

both physically and mentally, through the ball it becomes clear that this is a test of her will as

she presses on through the supernatural pain and weariness. Margarita also has two blood baths,

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2 Baratt 236

3 Michail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, trans. Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan OʼConnor (New York: Vintage International, 1996) 232.4 Baratt 235

5 Bulgakov 234

6 Bulgakov 223-224

one before and one during the ball. If it were not for the second bath and again the drinking of

the blood at the end of the ball perhaps the reader may dismiss the first bath as part of the surreal

nature of Bulgakov’s work, but the second indicates that we should give them a bit more

consideration and the drinking of the blood confirms the significance. The first shower she is

prepared and polished for the greeting of the guests, the second shower is to revive her so that

she can make her rounds at the ball, and finally at the end of the ball her trust in Woland is

further tested when he presents the goblet of blood to her to drink. With the first shower she is

enters the ball, with the second she moves from one stage of the ball to the next, and with the

drinking of blood the ball is ended. The blood becomes an element of transformation for

Margarita moving her from being a fervent lover to a worthy guide. Ultimately she passes the

test of the ball and is so rewarded in the subsequent chapter. This test is important as it proves

her worthiness to be reunited with the Master and to receive peace.

The greeting of the guests is Margarita’s main purpose at the ball, and through it the

reader is given a Dantesque vision of the revelers. Also it quickly becomes apparent that the

guests are not being tortured or punished, as one would expect from Satan or demons or hell.

Instead Margarita is the one who is tortured, and the guests are upon their arrival bathed in light.

Margarita is given strict instructions to courteously recognize each guest, and later as she leaves

for her second bath they are clearly enjoying themselves as “unconstrained merriment reigned.”7

What is gained from the greeting of the guests is a clear indication of who is ‘evil’; “kings,

dukes, cavaliers, suicides, poisoners, gallows birds, and procuresses, jailers and cardsharps,

executioners, informers, traitors, madmen, detectives, corrupters of youth.”8 The guests alone

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7 Bulgakov 231

8 Bulgakov 230

tell us about Woland as they are all there because of what they have done yet his purpose with

them is not to punish but to reveal. In the end the only two attendees who receive any from of

retribution are Mikhail Alexandrovich and Baron Maigel. Alexandrovich is sent into non-being,

this significant first because it shows the power Woland has to meet out the expectations of those

he encounters and secondly because it is the first step in Woland’s self revelation. Through the

final death of Alexandrovich a goblet is created. Then Baron Maigel, an “informer and spy,”9 is

killed by Abaddon. The blood spilled by the Baron is collected in the goblet made from

Alexandrovich, this blood is then converted to wine (a clear parallel to the Christian idea of wine

turning to blood). When Woland drinks of the wine his mask is lifted and a vision of his true

nature is given.

Ultimately Woland’s Ball shows us that Woland himself is not a punisher of the damned

nor a worshiper of demonic, but rather a bearer of “ultimate justice.”10 Through Woland

deceptions are stripped away and truth is brought to light, but rather than doing so in an obvious

or kind manner he allows his retinue to intervene by persuading behavior and tormenting the

wicked. Most notable is the destruction of Mikhail Alexandrovich. At this point in The Master

and Margarita where not only is Woland’s ability to foresee the future confirmed, but also his

ability to manipulate it. The appearance at the ball of so many of the ‘damned’ allows us to

understand what Bulgakov considers to be sins that separate the sinner from the ability to

achieve peace, and it also provides a way for Margarita to complete her penance, thus allowing

the Master and Margarita to achieve peace. Furthermore the apocalyptic nature of the ball

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9 Bulgakov 234

10 Baratt 240

prepares the reader for Woland’s ultimate transformation into what is reminiscent of one of the

horsemen of the apocalypse, as well as his granting eternal peace to the Master and Margarita.

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