The Significance of Wolands Ball
Transcript of The Significance of Wolands Ball
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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